Bock v. Harmon’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

21 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 21 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Clearly Dr. Harmon took no affirmative overt action to prevent Fred from instituting a civil suit against him. Any psychological block which Fred may have had about bringing a civil action against his father cannot really be compared to the organic brain damage suffered by the plaintiff in Corsey, supra. We can only imagine the conscious and subconscious avoidance and suppression measures this young man must have employed to continue functioning on a daily basis in high school and afterward. But after attaining the age of majority, Fred was free to move out of his father's home. He was not incarcerated as was the plaintiff in Corsey, supra. His mother and sibling(s) lived in Hammond and Fred visited them regularly. He chose to stay in his father's home because it was convenient. Despite the horrible abuse inflicted by his father, Dr. Harmon was still Fred's father. We can fully understand the reluctance of a son to institute a civil action against his father. But it appears from the record—from a statement made by Fred—that he had never even conceived that it was possible to sue his father, have him arrested yes, but sue him, no. Despite the suppression of the memories of these experiences, there is no question but that Fred was fully aware of the illegality and perverse nature of the things his father did. His failure to file suit was due to a number of factors, including embarrassment, fear of ridicule, a distorted view of his father's power and accountability for his actio”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Whatcott v. Whatcott · 540 So. 2d 425 - Doe v. Ainsworth