McKenna v. McKenna’s Empirical Analysis
1980
Citation profile
19 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 19 later decisions — most recently April 2003
19 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 Murphy v. Carron · Walker v. Bohannan · Jones v. Linder · Jones v. McGonigle · Selle v. Selle
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 19 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“(1) the alleged oral contract must be clear, explicit, and definite; (2) it must be proven as pleaded; (3) such contract cannot be established by conversations either too ancient on the one hand, or too loose or casual upon the other; (4) the alleged oral contract must itself be fair, and not unconscionable; (5) the proof of the contract as pleaded must be such as to leave no reasonable doubt in the mind of the chancellor that the contract as alleged was in fact made, and that the full performance, so far as lies in the hands of the parties to perform, has been had; (6) and the work constituting performance must be such as is referable solely to the contract as sought to be enforced and not such as might be reasonably referable to some other and different contract; (7) the contract must be one based upon an adequate and legal consideration, so that its performance upon the one hand, but not upon the other, would bespeak an unconscionable advantage and wrong, demanding in good conscience relief in equity; (8) proof of mere disposition to devise by will or convey by deed by way of gift, or as a reward for services, is not sufficient, but there must be shown a real contract to devise by will or convey by deed made before the acts of performance relied upon were had.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Gegg v. Kiefer“1. A clear, explicit, and definite contract exists. 2. The contract is proven as pleaded. 3. The contract is not established by conversations too ancient on one hand, or too casual on the other. 4. Proof of the contract is such as to leave no reasonable doubt in the mind of the chancellor that the alleged contract was in fact made and that full performance of the contract has been had. 5. The acts constituting performance are solely referable to the contract pleaded and are not such as to be reasonably referable to some other contract.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Lederle v. Lederle
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.