Battle Adoption Case’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

17 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 17 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “We also dismiss Laura Battle’s claim that her custody of Elisa for nearly two years immediately prior to the institution of this action terminated her earlier abandonment. She contends that abandonment cannot exist during a period of the maintenance of the physical custody of the child. While we do not intimate that an abandonment is irrevocable, we will not allow a parent who has once shunned her parental duties to terminate that abandonment by merely obtaining custody of the child in the manner here employed. This court has stated that: “Abandonment is not an ambulatory thing,” Davies Adoption, 353 Pa. 579, 587 , 46 A.2d 252, 256 (1946), and that “once the abandonment is shown to have existed, it becomes a judicial question whether it really has been terminated or can be, consistently with the welfare of the child,” Weinbach’s Appeal, 316 Pa. 333, 339 , 175 A. 500, 502 (1934). Although an abandoning parent’s later custody of the child is a factor to consider, once an abandonment has been established it is the child’s welfare that is material. After thorough examination of the record, we are convinced that Laura Battle’s abandonment has not been terminated and we believe that Elisa’s welfare would best be served by affirming the adoption decree.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Koivu v. Irwin