Richards v. Collins’s Empirical Analysis
1889
Citation profile
1 federal appellate · 82 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 86 later decisions — most recently September 2010 · most notably Ross v. Pick (1952), Watkins v. Nelson (2000)
1 federal appellate · 82 state decisions — followed in 18 states
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 In re M'Dowle
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 86 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“In a controversy over its [a child's] possession, its welfare will be the paramount consideration in controlling the discretion of the court. The strict right of the parent will be passed by, if a judgment in observance of such right would substitute a worse for a better custodian.”
5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““Doubtless it is the strict legal right of parents and those standing in loco parentis to have the custody of their infant children as against strangers. This right will control the judgment of the court, unless circumstances of weight and importance connected with the welfare of the child exist to overbear such strict legal right. “The court will not regard the parental right as controlling, when to do so would imperil the personal safety, morals, health or happiness of the child. In determining this delicate and often difficult judgment, the court looks at the character, condition, habits and other surroundings of claimants.””
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“either through inability to give it a home or through indifference, have withdrawn themselves from it and allowed it to become rooted in its foster home. The true interest of Clara [the child, 12 years and 8 months old], under present circumstances, requires, in my judgment, that she remain in the appellant's family.”
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.