Magee v. Westmoreland’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

5 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 5 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The unequivocal phraseology of the language in the Code and the requirements of an agreement in writing by joint owners of an account including a certificate of deposit prevent a court from scrutinizing the circumstances surrounding the establishment of such multiple-party accounts and declaring the existence of a contract for the benefit of the third party or the intent of the decedent. In the absence of the mandated agreement in writing, the interest of a joint owner who dies before severance shall not survive to the remaining joint owner but shall descend to and is vested in his heirs or legal representatives.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Martinez v. Martinez

2. “[P]ayable to said depositor, or if more than one, to either or any of said depositors or the survivor or survivors, upon presentation and surrender of this certificate, properly endorsed, on the Maturity date.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Martinez v. Martinez

3. “In other cases, the death of any party to a multiple-party account has no effect on beneficial ownership of the account other than to transfer the rights of the decedent as part of his estate.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Stauffer v. Henderson