Freeman v. Robinson’s Empirical Analysis
1876
Citation profile
10 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 10 later decisions — most recently October 1994
10 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on Mercein v. People ex rel. Barry · Cook v. Bradley · Harris v. Roof's Executors · Smith v. Ware · Geer v. Archer
Most-quoted passages
The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 10 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““The duty of a father to provide maintenance for his children is a mere moral obligation. Except in cases within the statute of Elizabeth, and by the procedure there pointed out, he is not legally compellable to perform this duty. No action can be maintained against a father for goods purchased on his credit by his minor child, even though they be necessaries, unless the father has expressly or impliedly authorized the purchase on his credit. The authority of an infant to bind the father by contract for necessaries may be inferred from slight evidence. But, nevertheless, where the parent gives no authority, and enters into no contract, he is no more liable to pay a debt contracted by his child even for necessaries, than a mere stranger would be. 1 Parsons on Contracts 299; 1 Chitty on Contracts 210; Mortimore v. Wright, 6 M. & W. 482; Raymond v. Loyl, 10 Barb. 489; Plotts v. Roseberry, 4 Dutcher 146. The mere moral obligation of a parent to maintain his child affords no legal inference of a promise to pay a debt contracted by him even for necessaries. Shelton v. Springett, 11 C. B. 452.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Greenspan v. Slate
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.