Gallagher v. Goldstein’s Empirical Analysis
1988
Citation profile
3 federal appellate · 4 district · 13 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 22 later decisions — most recently July 2018
3 federal appellate · 4 district · 13 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 Lewis v. Lewis · Johnson's Case · Kaye v. Newhall · Rambert v. Commonwealth · Commonwealth v. Caponi
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 22 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The rule established by the statute is one of disqualification rather than privilege.... Testimony as to the contents of a private conversation is inadmissible even if both spouses desire the evidence to be admitted. It seems imprudent to prohibit testimony as to a marital conversation when both parties to the conversation want disclosure.... However, the Legislature has enacted a statute stating a clear and unambiguous preference for the marital disqualification. We have consistently ruled that the statute renders spouses incompetent to testify as to the contents of their private conversations with their marital partners.... While we agree with the plaintiff that many of the stated policy reasons for this statute are anachronistic and that those that are not outmoded, such as the preservation of marital confidentiality and harmony, are not furthered by the inadmissibility of this testimony, we must construe the statute as it is written. Were this strictly a common law rule, we would not hesitate to transform it from a rule of disqualification to one of privilege. However, given the existence of the statute, that decision is for the Legislature.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“(1) The husband and wife were considered one entity at common law; (2) a marital couple has only one interest and thus nothing could be gained by allowing a spouse to testify for or against the other; (3) a spouse has a "bias of affection" and would not testify truthfully; (4) allowing testimony might disturb marital peace; and (5) if a wife is a witness for her husband, she "must be subjected to a cross-examination which might call for truths unfavorable to his cause" and result in marital disharmony.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“Any person of sufficient understanding, although a party, may testify in any proceeding . . . except as follows: First, . . . neither husband nor wife shall testify as to private conversations with the other;”
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.