406 So. 2d 939 - Thomas v. Thomas’s Empirical Analysis
1981
Citation profile
29 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 29 later decisions — most recently December 2014 · most notably 144 Md. App. 395 - Collins v. Collins (2002), Hall v. Hall (1986)
29 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 Ex parte Dickens · 20 Ala. App. 514 - Robertson v. State · Thompson v. Thompson · Ryan v. Ryan · Murray v. Murray
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 29 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“"The inherent power of courts to enforce decrees through contempt proceedings is essential to the due administration of justice. It ought never be resorted to, however, except when founded on the unwillingness of the party to obey, *Page 159 since it is only the contempt, the disobedience, upon which the power rests. Robertson v. State , [ 20 Ala. App. 514 , 104 So. 561 (1924)]. If at the contempt hearing it is shown that the failure to pay the decreed alimony installments is not from mere contumacy, but from want of means, then there is no contempt. . . . "The scope of review in contempt cases is limited to questions of law and does not extend to the weight and sufficiency of the evidence but only to the question whether any evidence supports the trial court's decree. Wilson v. Freeman , [ 376 So.2d 1096 (Ala.Civ.App.), cert. denied , 376 So.2d 1099 (Ala. 1979)]; Brady v. Brady , 358 So.2d 744 (Ala.Civ App.), cert. denied , 358 So.2d 748 (Ala. 1978); Hardy v. Hardy , 46 Ala. App. 249 , 240 So.2d 598 (1970). When the accused, however, puts forth evidence of his inability to pay, the burden of proof is on the complainant to prove he can pay beyond a reasonable doubt. Sewell v. Butler , 375 So.2d 800 (Ala.Civ.App. 1979); Ex parte Gunnels , 25 Ala. App. 577 , 151 So. 605 (1933)."”
3 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.