Berman v. United States’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

14 federal appellate ·

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

1. “This is seldom a light burden, and where the property transferred is so inherently death-oriented as life insurance, it is even heavier. The burden is generally carried by producing substantial evidence that the decedent's dominant motive for making the transfer was to accomplish some specific lifetime purpose.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Estate of Ross H. Compton, Deceased, by First National Bank of Middletown v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue · Hutchinson v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue

2. “(i)t is not enough for the estate to show that decedent was in good health and did not anticipate immediate death.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Estate of Ross H. Compton, Deceased, by First National Bank of Middletown v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue

3. “essence of a three-year contemplation of death case lies in the estate's ability to prove a negative”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Hutchinson v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue