Spencer v. Williams’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

3 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 4 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “This brings us back to our initial inquiry: what standard the court is to use in determining whether it should authorize an election, on behalf of the incompetent spouse, to take the statutory share? Courts in this country have, by and large, taken one of two general approaches in answering this question. Both approaches, not surprisingly, purport to address the best interests of the surviving spouse. The first approach, and the one adopted by the trial court, is usually characterized as the minority view. It has as its central precept the belief that in most circumstances, the best interests of the incompetent spouse will be met by electing the option which provides the surviving spouse with the greatest monetary value. [Citations omitted]. The second, or majority approach, on the other hand, comprises the view that the minority approach involves too narrow a conception of the spouse’s best interests. While courts favoring the majority approach look upon the pecuniary value of the property as one factor in their analy-ses, they assert that other considerations should be taken into account as well.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Foman v. Moss

2. “We note finally that the trial court was correct in concluding that Mrs. Henderson’s death on April 24, 1987, while the motion for ratification of the election was under advisement, has no effect on the outcome of this case. It is true that, absent exceptional circumstances, death terminates the right of a surviving spouse, whether competent or incompetent, to renounce the will. In the present case, however, Mrs. Henderson, acting through her conservator, filed her election to renounce the will while she was still alive. That Mrs. Henderson did not live to receive her share does not alter our analysis.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. In re Will of Sayre ex rel. Sayre