Brown v. Hall’s Empirical Analysis
1981
Citation profile
107 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 111 later decisions — most recently April 2008 · most notably 378 Pa. Super. 474 - Sonder v. Sonder (1988), 417 Pa. Super. 592 - McMahon v. McMahon (1992)
107 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 Field v. Golden Triangle Broadcasting, Inc. · Zlotziver v. Zlotziver · Yuhas v. Schmidt · Dora v. Dora · Silvestri v. Slatowski
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 111 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““A holding to the contrary would serve to illegitimize future separation agreements and encourage a party to promise anything to obtain a divorce, knowing he will never be bound by it even when the promise is in writing and for valid consideration. Needless to say, such a holding would also serve to shake the very foundation of contract law and the sanctity of a bargain made between parties dealing at arm’s length.” Id. at 643-44 , 435 A.2d at 863 (quoting Brown v. Hall, 27 Cumb. L.J. 340, 349-50 (1977)).”
5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“We concur with the principle that parties to a divorce cannot restrict the court’s power to modify a support order as facts, circumstances, and justice may require. But where, as here, a property settlement agreement has not been merged into the decree, the principle in no way affects the parties’ continuing liability between themselves for separate contractual obligations .... The record here supports the finding that the parties intended the separation agreement to create contractual rights and obligations entirely independent of the already existing court order. Id. 495 Pa. at 642 , 435 A.2d at 862 (emphasis in original, footnote omitted).”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“[T]he courts of this Commonwealth correctly have not hesitated to disregard a support agreement if it does not provide adequate support for minor children: [A] mother cannot, by contract, bargain away the right of her minor child to adequate support, to the relief of the father, irrespective of the legality of the agreement between the parents themselves. Commonwealth ex rel. Rossi v. Rossi, 161 Pa.Super. 86, 89 , 53 A.2d 887, 888 (1947), quoted in Commonwealth ex rel. Snively v. Snively, 206 Pa.Super. 278, 281 , 212 A.2d 905, 906 (1965).”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
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.