50 Wash. 2d 577 - Koon v. Koon’s Empirical Analysis
1957
Citation profile
47 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 47 later decisions — most recently April 2000 · most notably 74 Wash. 2d 253 - Chase v. Chase (1968), 95 Wash. 2d 699 - In Re the Marriage of Gimlett (1981)
47 state decisions — followed in 10 states
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 Beers v. Beers · 241 Mo. App. 21 - Swenson v. Swenson · Nelson v. Nelson · McCourtney v. McCourtney · Torras v. McDonald
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 47 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“A wife is not entitled to free litigation. If, however, a wife is without funds, it is an abuse of discretion to deny. Conversely, if the wife has money of her own, it is error to award attorney's fees.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage““If, under such a decree as we have here before us, the father could refuse to make the payments required of him, and in an attempt to justify such refusal show that he had expended certain sums of money on his children while they were with him, it is evident there would be continuous trouble and turmoil. If a party to such a decree is not satisfied with its provisions relative to the custody of the children, or payments required to be made for their support, such a party may always come into court and ask for a modification of the decree.” 192 P.2d at 975 .”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“It was not the intention of the statute[ 4 ] to award attorneys’ fees and costs upon the basis of sex. A wife is not entitled to free litigation because of it. The statute intends that a party is not to be deprived of his or her day in court by reason of poverty. Courts predicate awards of costs and attorneys’ fees upon the need of the party seeking them, and exercise their discretion upon the merits of the showing made.”
1 later decision 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.