Thomerson v. Thomerson’s Empirical Analysis
1986
Citation profile
17 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 17 later decisions — most recently April 2021
17 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 In re Oliver · Cooke v. United States · Uphaus v. Wyman · Malcolm v. Malcolm · In re Grand Jury Investigation
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 17 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Contempt of court is classified as either criminal or civil. Criminal or direct con-tempts are words spoken or acts committed in the presence of the court or during its intermissions which tend to subvert, embarrass, or prevent the administration of justice and may be summarily punished by the presiding judge as he may deem just and necessary. Constructive or civil contempts arise not from matters transpiring in court but rather from a person’s failure to comply with orders and decrees issued by the court in a civil action for the benefit of an opposing party. It is not always easy to classify a particular act as belonging either to criminal or civil contempt. It may partake of the characteristics of both. However, the distinction in punishment is clear. In criminal contempt the order itself is in the nature of punishment. In civil contempt the punishment is coercive, that is, it compels the person to act in accordance with the court’s order.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage“(1) the existence of an order; (2) knowledge of the order; (3) ability to comply with the order; and (4) willful or contumacious disobedience of the order.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“Due process of law, therefore, in the prosecution of contempt, except of that committed in open court, requires that the accused should be advised of the charges and have a reasonable opportunity to meet them by way of defense or explanation. We think this includes the assistance of counsel, if requested, and the right to call witnesses to give testimony, relevant to either the issue of complete exculpation or in extenuation of the offense and in mitigation of the penalty.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage
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.