Miller v. Folsom’s Empirical Analysis
1915
Citation profile
34 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 34 later decisions — most recently April 1976 · most notably Fox v. Schaeffer (1944), Long v. Anderson (1920)
34 state decisions
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 Allore v. Jewell · Supervisors v. Kennicott · Bruner Et Ux. v. Cobb · 67 W. Va. 253 - Black v. Post · Jones v. Thompson
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 34 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““The test of capacity to make an agreement or conveyance is that a man shall have the ability to understand the nature and effect of the act in which he is engaged, and the business he is transacting. He may be old; he may be enfeebled by disease ; he may be irrational upon some topics —but in the absence of fraud and imposition, lie may still execute a valid deed, or other disposition of his property; but if the mind be so clouded or perverted by age, disease, or affliction that he cannot comprehend the business in which he is engaging, then the writing is not his deed.””
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Charley v. Norvell““In eases of alleged want of mental capacity, the test is whether the party had the ability to comprehend; in a reasonable manner, the nature of the affair in which he participated. This is the rule in the absence of fraud; for fraud, when present, introduces other principles. 8 C. E. Green, 511. This ability so to comprehend necessarily implies the power to understand the character, legal conditions, and effect of the act performed.””
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Charley v. Norvell““To justify setting aside a deed upon the ground that the grantor was weak-minded, the proof must show that he was so mentally unsound as to be incapable of understanding the nature and effect of the transaction, and of protecting his own interest; and it is not sufficient to show that he was not a good judge of land values nor capable of making discreet trades.””
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Sanders v. Rhea
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.