Ex Parte Terry’s Empirical Analysis
1986
Citation profile
200 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 203 later decisions (1 by the Supreme Court) — most recently September 2018 · most notably 646 So. 2d 46 - Ex Parte Perkins (1994), In Re Guardianship of Williams (1994)
200 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 455 So. 2d 863 - Ex Parte McLendon · Chandler v. Whatley · Greene v. Greene · Ex Parte Mathews · 410 So. 2d 416 - Ex Parte Berryhill
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 203 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“"`The prima facie right of a natural parent to the custody of his or her child, as against the right of custody in a nonparent, is grounded in the common law concept that the primary parental right of custody is in the best interest and welfare of the child as a matter of law. So strong is this presumption, absent a showing of voluntary forfeiture of that right, that it can be overcome only by a finding, supported by competent evidence, that the parent seeking custody is guilty of such misconduct or neglect to a degree which renders that parent an unfit and improper person to be entrusted with the care and upbringing of the child in question. '"”
38 later decisions quote this exact passagee.g. Ex Parte Matthews · K.C. v. D.C.“clear and convincing evidence that the parent is so unfit or unsuited for custody that the best interest of the child will be served by granting custody to the third person.”
11 later decisions quote this exact passagee.g. Grant v. Grant · Cbb v. Jsd“[t]he standard to be applied ... is that applied ... in Ex parte Berryhill [, 410 So.2d 416 (Ala.1982).]”
4 later decisions quote this exact passagee.g. Horn v. Horn · DC v. Co.
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.