Pierce v. Woods’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

4 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 5 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The word “belong” is defined in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language as follows: “To be the property or concern of.” There is nothing in the record to show that any greater interest in the subject property “belonged to decedent” than belonged to the survivor, Mrs. Pierce. Indeed, when property is held by husband and wife as tenants by the entireties each owns an equal interest in the property; it is impossible for more than 50% of the value of such an estate to “belong” to the deceased spouse. Robinson v. Trousdale County, 516 S.W.2d 626 (1974). Since the number of persons holding an estate by the entireties is two in number, it is clear that 50%, and no more, of the value of property held as tenants by the entireties is to be included in the taxable estate of the decedent spouse. The taxing statute with which we deal does not define the taxable estate in terms of the amount contributed by the decedent toward its purchase price, as is true in the statutes of some jurisdictions, but, on the contrary, defines the estate in terms of the ownership interest vested in the decedent at the time of death. ... To say that 92% of the value of the property here held by Mr. [and] Mrs. Pierce as tenants by the entireties belonged to Mr. Pierce and only 8% to Mrs. Pierce is pure fiction and for the Court to determine tax liability in this case upon that basis is unwarranted by the statute and is unjust.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. In Re Hensley