Walker v. Abercrombie’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

26 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 27 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““It is ordinarily true that the legal representative of a deceased person’s estate is the proper person to maintain a. suit to recover property of or a debt due to an estate; but that there are exceptions to this rule is well settled even in cases in which heirs or persons claiming rights derived from and through the deceased are the persons suing. Evans v. Oakley, 2 Tex. 185 ; Moore v. Morse, 2 Tex. 403 ; Lacy v. William’s [Heirs], 8 Tex. 185 ; McIntyre v. Chappell, 4 Tex. 192 ; Cochran v. Thompson, 18 Tex. 656 ; Patton v. Gregory, 21 Tex. 517 ; Giddings v. Steele, 28 Tex. 748 [ 91 Am. Dec. 336 ] “The rule is not an unbending one, and has its foundation in the necessity for giving protection to creditors of a deceased person, which in most cases makes it necessary to place the estate and its control in the hands of a legal representative, freed from interference by heirs, legatees or devisees, while such representative is in the lawful discharge of the trust. “This rule does not exist for the benefit of debtors to the estate who are indisposed to pay what they justly owe to any one. “Property vests in the legal representative of an estate only in a qualified manner and to a limited extent for a given purpose, and for all other purposes the title is in the heir from the instant of the death of the intestate.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Dowlin v. Boyd

2. ““Here the subject matter of litigation would soon, in legal contemplation, be destroyed by lapse of time; those for whose benefit, chiefly, administration is granted had not seen proper to have an administration opened; sufficient time had elapsed to bar all debts not evidenced by writing; a prima facie case showing no interest of creditors in the fund is shown, and the beneficiary may not have been able to take out letters of administration.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Coakley v. Reising

3. ““Without administration she may in good faith sell the property of the estate for payment of debts, and thus destroy the title of heirs * * *.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Turner v. Sawyer