Deville v. LaGrange’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

24 state decisions

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 24 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““In Wood v. Beard [ 290 So.2d 675 ] ... we enunciated as a rule of law the principle that ... the parent has the paramount right to the custody of the child, and may be deprived of that custody only when there are compelling reasons. We also indicated what forms these compelling reasons may take: proof that the parent has forfeited his or her right to parenthood, that he or she is unfit, or that he or she is unable to provide a home for the child.” 388 So.2d at 698 (citations omitted)”

   5 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. In Re Custody of Landry · 124 So. 3d 8 - Ramirez v. Ramirez

2. “"No one would argue that the weight of a mother's right to the custody of her child should be reduced simply because she is not married to the child's father and has not performed a formal act of legitimation. There may be a misguided tendency to view the situation in a different light when the parent whose right is at stake is the father, but this so only because of a failure to distinguish between the right which flows from the fact of parenthood, whether that parenthood is legitimate or not, and the possibility of a subsequent forfeiture of parenthood through abandonment or neglect, which may be greater when the relationship between the child's father and its mother, or between the father and the child, has not been formalized. Parenthood itself confers a right to custody, but that right of parenthood may be forfeited by conduct which denies or rejects one's child."”

   4 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Maxwell v. LeBlanc · Smith v. Johnson

3. ““The trial court correctly noted the paramount nature of the father’s right to custody and the strong showing which a nonparent must make in order to overcome the right, but it then proceeded to ‘balance the reasons for giving custody to the [father] against those for not giving him custody.’ By so doing, [the trial court] lost sight of the great weight to which the parental right to custody is entitled.” ibid. Bracketed material supplied.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Smith v. Johnson