Breen v. Breen’s Empirical Analysis
1952
Citation profile
10 federal appellate · 28 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 40 later decisions — most recently March 2025 · most notably Lane Title and Trust Company v. Brannan (1968), 338 Ill. App. 3d 864 - Brown v. Ryan (2003)
10 federal appellate · 28 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 Ashton v. MacQueen · Aronson v. Olsen · Plast v. Metropolitan Trust Co. · Yedor v. Chicago City Bank & Trust Co. · Saros v. Carlson
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 40 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Although the time for the termination of the trust has arrived in accordance with the terms of the trust, the trustee does not thereby necessarily cease to be trustee, but he continues to be trustee until the trust is finally wound up. The period for winding up the trust is the period after the time for termination of the trust has arrived and before the trust is terminated by the distribution of the trust property. This period may properly be longer or shorter, depending upon the circumstances. Where . . . the ascertainment of the beneficiaries entitled to distribution or the amounts to which they are entitled is difficult, the period of winding up the trust may properly be longer than it would be in the absence of these circumstances.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“The duty of the trustee is to proceed to wind up the trust within such time as under all the circumstances is reasonably required for the purpose. Where the estate is large . . ., where the ascertainment of the beneficiaries entitled to distribution or the amounts to which they are entitled is difficult, the period of winding up the trust may properly be longer than it would be in the absence of these circumstances. See § 344, Comment a.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority““When the time for the termination of the trust has arrived, it is the duty of the trustee to wind up the trust and make distribution of the trust property as soon as he reasonably can do so. Whether the trustee has been guilty of an improper delay in winding up the trust depends upon all the circumstances.” 4 A. Scott & W. Fratcher, Trusts § 345.1, at 551 (4th ed. 1989).”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
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.