LaPointe v. Menard’s Empirical Analysis
1982
Citation profile
18 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 18 later decisions — most recently May 2006
18 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 Wood v. Beard · State Ex Rel. Paul v. Peniston · State Ex Rel. Martin v. Garza · State Ex Rel. Martin v. Talbot · In re Daboval
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 18 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“"It is well settled in our jurisprudence that a parent has a paramount right to custody of his or her child and may be deprived of such right only for compelling reasons. In accordance with this principle, it is well recognized that when a parent competes with non-parents of the child, the parent's right to custody must be recognized unless it be established by convincing proof that he or she is unfit or has forfeited the parental right of custody by action or omission" (citations omitted.)”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“"As we understand the thrust of defendants' argument they contend that plaintiff has forfeited her parental right to custody by reason of her past conduct which resulted in two prior decisions which found her to be an unfit parent. From this premise they argue that the trial court should have simply considered the matter from the standpoint of `best interest of the child' as between the competing parties. "We do not agree that a parent forfeits forever the parental right to custody of his or her child by reason of the fact that at one time or another he or she has been declared morally or otherwise unfit for custody. Even as between competing parents, the cases are legion which have awarded custody to a parent once denied that right because of his or her prior lifestyle. Even more so should this same result obtain in custody contests between parents and non-parents."”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Dubois v. Dartez“According to several witnesses who testified, including a social worker with the Office of Human Development, plaintiff (natural parent) now displays all of the characteristics of a good wife and mother and is now able to provide Ravis (the child in question) with a good home.”
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.