49 Tenn. App. 1 - Ex Parte Wolfenden’s Empirical Analysis
1959
Citation profile
30 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 32 later decisions — most recently November 2005 · most notably In Re Swanson (1999), In Re Audrey S. (2005)
30 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 Young v. Smith · Hicks v. Hicks
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.
“"`Abandonment imports any conduct on the part of the parent which evinces a settled purpose to forego all parental duties and relinquish all parental claims to the child. It does not follow that the purpose may not be repented of, and, in proper cases all parental rights again acquired. * * * but when 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.' 1 Am.Jur. Adoption of Children, Section 42." 49 Tenn. App. at p. 5 , 349 S.W.2d at p. 714 . (Emphasis added)”
9 later decisions quote this exact passage““[2] We should like to point out that in resolving the issue of abandonment, the circuit judge is not limited by the definition of an abandoned child found in Section 36-102(5): ‘For the purpose of this chapter, an abandoned child shall be any child under the age of eighteen (18) years who shall be willfully abandoned at least four (4) consecutive months immediately preceding institution of an action or proceeding to declare the child to be abandoned child.’ This definition applies according to its express provisions only in case there is an ‘action or proceeding to declare the child to be abandoned child,’ and has not been extended by amendment or construction to apply when the issue of abandonment is under consideration in an adoption proceeding in the circuit or chancery court.” 49 Tenn.App., p. 4, 349 S.W.2d, p. 714.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage
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.