Dwight Estate’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

3 federal appellate · 21 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 30 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “`Its determining characteristic is that the annuitant has an interest only in the payments themselves and not in any principal fund or source from which they may be derived.'”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 946 So. 2d 838 - Boykin v. Law · Unisys v. NEBRASKA LIFE AND HEALTH INS.

2. ““The fact that a testator or settlor uses the word ‘annuity’ in a will or trust is of great significance in determining the intention of a testator or settlor and whether a particular bequest was intended to be a ‘gift of income’ or an ‘annuity’: MacMackin Estate, 356 Pa. 189, 192, 193 , 51 A.2d 689 [(1947)]; Pusey Estate, 370 Pa. 572, 577 , 88 A.2d 750 [(1952)]; Elmore Estate, 379 Pa. 155, 156 , 108 A.2d 803 [(1954)]. However, in the face of a contrary expression expressed in the will or trust, the mere use of the word ‘annuity’ should not be controlling in the determination of the source or manner of its payment. “The right of a legatee — whether he be an annuitant or the recipient of a gift of income — to have an income deficiency made good out of the corpus of a fund does not depend upon any rule of law, but rather upon the intent of the settlor or testator gleaned from the will or trust provisions and his relationship to the objects of his bounty. In In re West, 1 Ir. 75, it was said: ‘The question is always a question of intention. Numerous cases have been referred to, and in this great mass of authority scarcely any settled principles have been arrived at. In nearly every case the decision has turned upon the special words used and the connection in which they occur, affording no light whatever in cases where the words used are different or used in a different connection. What few principles are arrived at are subject to exceptions so numerous and so minute as to be sc”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. In re Estate of Lesko

3. ““One of the difficulties encountered in defining an ‘annuity’ is the fact that the meaning of the word is so often confused with the method or source of its payment. . . . There is no magic in the word ‘annuity,’ although some courts attach to the definition of an ‘annuity’ the method for or the source of its payment”.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Harrison Estate