41 Va. App. 742 - Smith v. Smith’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

12 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 13 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““limits the authority of a trial court to make or modify spousal support awards when an agreement exists. ‘In such cases, the intent of the parties as expressed in the agreement controls, and the agreement is treated as a contract and construed in the same manner as all contracts.’ White v. White, 257 Va. 139, 144 , 509 S.E.2d 323, 325 (1999). The statute was enacted to require that decrees for support honor agreements made by the parties; it prevents a court from rewriting the parties’ contract.””

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 54 Va. App. 162 - Doering v. Doering · 59 Va. App. 22 - Driscoll v. Hunter

2. “Any court may affirm, ratify and incorporate by reference in its ... decree of divorce ... any valid agreement between the parties, or provisions thereof, concerning the conditions of the maintenance of the parties, or either of them and the care, custody and maintenance of their minor children, or establishing or imposing any other condition or consideration, monetary or nonmonetary.... Where the court affirms, ratifies and incorporates by reference in its decree such agreement or provision thereof, it shall be deemed for all purposes to be a term of the decree, and enforceable in the same manner as any provision of such decree.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Arthur G. Kahn v. Eileen McNicholas