Gunn v. Cavanaugh’s Empirical Analysis
1965
Citation profile
86 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 86 later decisions — most recently June 2016 · most notably Wiley v. Spratlan (1976), Norman Communications v. Texas Eastman Co. (1997)
86 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 Armstrong v. Manzo · State Ex Rel. Wood v. Deaton · Lawyers Lloyds v. Webb · Gillian v. Day · Dewitt v. Brooks
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 86 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“This proceeding is not a typical bill of review but one particularly suited to the needs of the situation. A child cannot be likened to a chattel that may be stored in a warehouse for preservation and safekeeping. He is one of the most fragile and easily damaged of all living creatures. His requirements must be met with dispatch if he is to survive or escape serious damage and his needs may not be postponed pending search for a missing parent. Yet the rights of the natural parent are of high importance and due process properly requires that the burden of proof to show forfeiture of parental rights rest upon him who asserts the affirmative of the proposition and not upon the allegedly negligent parent.... Matters affecting the parent and the child and the respective rights of each should be determined so far as is consistent with orderly procedure without unnecessary involvement in procedural quirks, complications and limitations.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passagee.g. Waites v. Sondock · In Re KMS““Of course, considerations of due process require that a judicial determination of whether or not Gunn had forfeited his rights be made, after due notice to him and with no shifting of burden of proof to him requiring that he assume the burden of showing that he did not desert, abandon or otherwise forfeit his parental rights to his children.” [emphasis supplied] ( 391 S.W.2d at p. 725 )”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“Writ of error affords a review of the same scope as an appeal.”
2 later decisions 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.