Smith v. Gorman’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 district · 5 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 7 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““By the common law a wife can only enforce her rights in conjunction with her husband. By St. 1848, p. 61, c. 73, the wife is authorized to bring an action in her own name in vindication of her rights. So far as the statute gives her authority, she may commence and prosecute suits, and no further. By section 1 ‘she may commence, prosecute and defend any suit in law or equity to final judgment and execution in her own name, in the same manner as if she were unmarried, or she may prosecute or- defend such suit jointly witli her husband.’ The statute is in derogation of the common law, and is not to be construed as giving the wife a right* of action against the husband, unless it results from the express terms of the statute, or from necessary implication. The alternative is given to the wife to sue in her own name, or ‘jointly with her husband.’ The authority is in the alternative, and in either case is coextensive. As the husband and wife cannot, ‘jointly’ maintain an action against the husband, so neither can the wife alone. So the right of prosecution and of defense is coextensive. If the wife may sue the husband, the husband may sue the wife. The statute gives no mutual right of action between each other, to the husband and wife, and none such exists by the common law.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Allen-West Commission Co. v. Grumbles