Wiege v. Wiege’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

36 state decisions

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 37 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “"The respective ages of the parties, their earning ability, the duration of the marriage and conduct of the parties during the marriage, their station in life, the circumstances and necessities of each, their health and physical condition, their financial circumstances as shown by the property owned at the time, its value at the time, its income-producing capacity, if any, whether accumulated before or after the marriage, and such other matters as may be material."”

   5 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Van Klootwyk v. Van Klootwyk · Wolf v. Wolf

2. “That mutual decision is of benefit to both partners during the life of the marriage but dissolution of the marriage is a different story. Permanent support is the price to be paid for the earlier mutual decision about the role to be played by each marital partner when, in fact, the economically disadvantaged partner cannot obtain, after training and reasonable time, the income necessary to live a life comparable to the one prior to divorce or comparable to the higher earner’s post-divorce reduced standard of living.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. Pearson v. Pearson · Fox v. Fox

3. “A spouse must be disadvantaged as a result of the divorce for rehabilitation or maintenance to be appropriate. Weir [v. Weir, 374 N.W.2d 858, 862 (N.D.1985) ]. We prefer temporary rehabilitative support to remedy this disadvantage, and indefinite permanent support is appropriate only if a spouse “cannot be adequately restored to independent economic status.” Heley [v. Heley, 506 N.W.2d 715, 720 (N.D.1993)]. Therefore, a trial court should consider rehabilitative support first because it may eliminate the need for permanent support. The purpose of rehabilitative support is to provide a disadvantaged spouse the opportunity to become self-supporting through additional training, education, or experience. LaVoi [v. LaVoi, 505 N.W.2d 384, 386 (N.D.1993) ], citing Rustand v. Rustand, 379 N.W.2d 806, 807 (N.D.1986). A spouse’s need for rehabilitation is not limit ed to the “prevention of destitution,” but can also be based on their standard of living before the divorce. Wahlberg v. Wahlberg, 479 N.W.2d 143, 145 (N.D.1992). Rehabilitative support can “balanc[e] the burdens created by the separation” if the parties do not have enough income to maintain the same standard of living apart as they enjoyed together. Wahlberg, id., citing Weir, 374 N.W.2d at 864 .”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Welder v. Welder