52 Md. App. 525 - McClellan v. McClellan’s Empirical Analysis
1982
Citation profile
16 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 16 later decisions — most recently January 2005
16 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 Arthur Treacher's Fish & Chips of Fairfax, Inc. v. Chillum Terrace Ltd. Partnership · Belcher v. Government Employees Insurance · State v. Rusk · 22 Md. App. 115 - Jacober v. High Hill Realty, Inc. · 15 Md. App. 503 - Colburn v. Colburn
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 16 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[i]n order to establish a confidential relationship, the wife must prove that she justifiably assumed that her husband would only act in a manner consistent with the wife’s welfare. Maryland law, especially since the passage of Article 46 of the Maryland Declaration of Rights, also known as the Equal Rights Amendment, does not permit a presumption of such a confidential relationship between spouses.[ 8 ] Absent proof of the relationship, a separation agreement is presumed to be valid. Cronin v. Hebditch, 195 Md. 607 , 74 A.2d 50 (1950). In the present case, the chancellor did not expressly find the absence of a confidential relationship, but by stating on the record his finding that Mrs. McClellan fully understood her own actions, that she had participated in negotiating the agreement, and was not subservient to her husband, the chancellor found a fortiori, that a confidential relationship did not exist.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“Mr. McClellan is a high school graduate; his wife did not attend high school. He worked as a plant manager earning over $39,000.00 per year; she temporarily operated an ice cream business and received minimal income. These facts do not contradict the chancellor’s conclusion that Mrs. McClellan is an intelligent person. Likewise, the testimony that the appellee once threatened to have his wife committed does not justify reversing the chancellor’s conclusion that Mrs. McClellan was not forced to sign the agreement, especially in light of the appellant’s admission that she responded to her husband by telling him, “What I should do is just blow your brains out”.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“1) that negotiations for the agreement were conducted between the parties in their own home, 2) that Mrs. McClellan was intelligent and understood that she signed a separation agreement, 3) that she understood that the agreement divided property rights, 4) that she handled family finances, prepared tax returns and knew her husband’s financial status, 5) and that she was not subjected to undue duress when she helped prepare and then signed the agreement.”
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.