Merrill v. Wimmer’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

7 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 7 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “‘The power or function of the court is limited to the construing of a will, that is, the interpretation of the language used by the testator, and it may not make or rewrite the will for the testator under the guise of construction, even to do equity or accomplish a more equitable division of the estate, or for the purpose of making it more liberal and just, or even though interested parties are agreeable thereto. So the courts have no right to vary or modify the terms of a will, or to reform it, even on grounds of mistake, accident, or surprise * * *.’ [Footnotes omitted.] 95 C.J.S. Wills § 586, pp. 710-713.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. In Re Estate of Grimm

2. “`[T]he plain and unambiguous words of the will must prevail, and are not to be controlled, or qualified, by any conjectural, or doubtful construction growing out of the situation, circumstances, or condition, either of the testator, his property or his family.'”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Nobbe v. Nobbe

3. “"An interest in property shall not be valid unless it must vest, if at all, not later than twenty-one (21) years after a life or lives in being at the creation of the interest."”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Brown v. American Fletcher National Bank