Larson v. Dunn’s Empirical Analysis
1990
Citation profile
2 federal appellate · 3 district · 31 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 37 later decisions — most recently May 2025 · most notably Marshak v. Marshak (1993), 204 W. Va. 95 - Kessel v. Leavitt (1998)
2 federal appellate · 3 district · 31 state decisions — followed in 12 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 International Shoe Co. v. Washington · Hanson v. Denckla · Calder v. Jones · Copperweld Corp. v. Independence Tube Corp. · Mackay v. Nesbett
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 37 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“"For the good of our children, the law should seek to promote such harmony as is possible in families .... At a minimum, the law should not provide a means of escalating intrafamily warfare.... "It is clear that this tort would be used as a new weapon in such disputes.... The interest in compensation should not outweigh the effects of bitter accusations on ... children.... "Creating this tort would create a new wrong. It would place innocent children in the middle of a vigorous, probably vicious, lawsuit ...."”
5 later decisions quote this exact passage“intentional interference with custodial rights”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage““The mother and grandparents in this case apparently believed they were protecting the child. A growing number of parents are hiding their children to protect them from physical and sexual abuse. See Myers, Allegations of Child Sexual Abuse in Custody and Visitation Litigation: Recommendations for Improved Fact Finding and Child Protection, 28 J.Fam.L. 1, 2 (1989). [See also McDougald v. Jenson, 596 F.Supp. 680, 685 (N.D.Fla.1984) (between 25,000 and 100,000 children of broken marriages are abducted by one of the parents each year)] Studies show that allegations of sexual abuse, while sometimes fabricated, are very often genuine. Id. at 21. Family ties are normally stronger than the fear of money damages. If a parent or grandparent believes a child is in danger, that parent or grandparent will probably not stop to consider tort liability before acting to protect the child. It will not add to the dignity of the law if grandparents are sued for providing shelter to their children in such situations.””
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Zaharias v. Gammill
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.