Kessler v. Kessler’s Empirical Analysis
1985
Citation profile
16 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 16 later decisions — most recently April 2013
16 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 Alexander v. Hagedorn · Busby v. Busby · Baker v. Goldsmith · McMurray v. McMurray · Hanks v. Rosser
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 16 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“In point of error one, appellant contends that the trial court erred in overruling her motion for new trial because appellant presented prima facie proof of a meritorious defense to the cause of action alleged to support the divorce judgment. It appears from appellant’s brief that this prima facie defense is that the division of property, pursuant to the final decree of divorce is unequal inasmuch as she only received 37% of the community property while her ex-husband received 63%. In support of this contention, appellant states that her original pleadings and proof, offered at the original divorce trial as well as at the pretrial hearing on her petition for bill of review, coupled with the absence of any evidence in the original divorce trial warranting an unequal property division, constitute prima facie proof of a meritorious defense. We find that appellant is basically contending that the trial court abused its discretion in its division of the parties’ community property. Abuse of discretion is not a proper subject for a bill of review.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. McDaniel v. Hale“A bill of review proceeding based on extrinsic fraud does not contemplate the rendition of a judgment which merely awards the petitioner money because of such fraud, but it contemplates a reexamination of the entire case and the rendition of a judgment which fairly and finally disposes of all issues raised in the original trial and in the bill of review itself.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Vickery v. Vickery
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.