Lettieri v. Lettieri’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

16 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 22 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “At the moment of divorce her ownership in the property was converted, and she lost the value of the same and received back as compensation a money judgment for such value. The judgment specifically created her lien on the property. This is not a case where she was awarded a promissory note with certain payments to be made monthly and the right to foreclose upon the property for the failure to make such payments. Nor is this a case where the property was the separate property of the husband before the marriage and she has been granted a lien against his separate property to pay her community claim. This presents a situation where the husband was awarded the use, occupancy, title and possession of the home and other property by the court, and the wife was awarded a money judgment as compensation for her interest in that property. It is clear that homestead property is exempt from a money judgment in a divorce decree. However, in a divorce action a lien may be placed upon a spouse’s real property homestead to secure the payment of the amount awarded to the other spouse for that other spouse’s homestead interest. The homestead exemption was also the wife’s entitlement prior to the time that the divorce was granted, a right which she had taken from her by the court and for which she was simultaneously awarded a judgment lien as compensation (citations omitted). Id. at 559 .”

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