Wisdom v. Wisdom’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

22 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. “The civil contemnor retains the power to terminate any sanction, even imprisonment, by the act of compliance- — an alternative not open to the criminal con-temnor. Thus also, a money sanction in a civil contempt functions only to remedy the contempt and to coerce the con-temnor to perform. For that reason, a peremptory fíne per se, unrelated to the performance sought, functions only to punish and not to compel. A money sanction imposed to enforce a civil contempt adjudication, rather, is per diem, continues only as long as the disobedience continues and properly bears some relation to damages occasioned by the default in performance, (internal citations omitted) (italics added).”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. State Ex Rel. Division of Family Services v. Bullock · Smith v. White

2. “In a proceeding for civil contempt for noncompliance with orders in a dissolution of marriage judgment, the contemnor has the more ready access to any facts to excuse the default. Thus, the contemnor bears the burden to prove that non-compliance was not an act of contumacy.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. State Ex Rel. Watkins v. Watkins

3. “something more than an ordinary debt or judgment for money.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Smith v. Capital Region Med. Ctr.