Davis v. Davis’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

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

1. “"Publication," in relation to the making of wills, is the act of declaring or making known to the witnesses that the testator understands and intends the instrument subscribed by him to be his last will and testament. Publication of a will, or the calling the attention of the witnesses to the will, by the testator, that the instrument which they are requested to attest is his will, is not a prerequisite to its legality unless required by statute. . . . . Generally, it is not essential to the validity of a will that it should be read over to the witnesses thereto, nor that they should know its contents. Nor is it necessary, in jurisdictions where publication is not required, that at the time they signed as witnesses they knew that the instrument was the testator's will. In this state, the law, [Probate Code section 59's predecessor], [21] . . . does not require the publication of a will, nor does it require that the testator inform the attesting witnesses that the instrument to be attested is his will. . . . Under our statute, to hold that because the testator did not tell an attesting witness that the instrument he was signing was the testator's will rendered the will illegal would be to read into the statute a prerequisite to the validity of the will that the Legislature did not include. It would be to superadd a condition or requirement not expressed in the law. . . . As we have stated above, under the statute of Texas, publication of the will or knowledge of the attesting ”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Brown v. Traylor

2. “Every last will and testament, except where otherwise provided by law, shall be in writing and signed by the testator in person or by another person for him by his direction and in his presence, and shall, if not wholly in the handwriting of the testator, be attested by two or more credible witnesses above the age of fourteen years who shall subscribe their names thereto in their own handwriting in the presence of the testator.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Brown v. Traylor