Smith v. Neikirk’s Empirical Analysis
1977
Citation profile
7 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 7 later decisions — most recently April 2018
7 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 Rybolt v. Futrell · Madden v. Cornett · Miller's v. Shannon · Wroblewski Ex Rel. Martin v. Yeager
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 7 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Testimony presented by [the notary] indicates that she witnessed the testator sign the will, then signed the will as a notary, and returned the will to him. The entire transaction indicates that [the notary] was there to witness the will and to further sign in an official capacity. The fact that she signed as a notary is merely surplusage.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“'The record of testimony indicates that witness Runk was within the presence of the testator and the other witnesses at all times. The fact that she may have had her back turned at the moment of execution does not disqualify her as a witness. All that is required to be proved by the subscribing witness is the identification of the signature.... It has been repeatedly held that substantial rather than a literal compliance with the statute ... will suffice. This Court has also indicated that where the technical requirements for execution of wills have been substantially complied with, the will should be probated.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Meyer v. Fanning
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.