Wellnitz v. Wellnitz’s Empirical Analysis
1946
Citation profile
25 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 25 later decisions — most recently September 1982 · most notably Masek v. Masek (1976), Application of Heintz (1959)
25 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 Larson v. Larson · Houghton v. Houghton · Greenleaf v. Greenleaf · Weygand v. Weygand · Wallace v. Wallace
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 25 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“A judgment in an action for divorce which awards the custody of a child of the parties is res judicata as to the right of custody under the conditions then existing, and a material or substantial change of circumstances must be established to invoke the power affirmed by SDC 14.0724, [now SDCL 25-4-45] to modify the provisions of the judgment with reference thereto.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“"In an action for divorce the court may, before or after judgment, give such direction for the custody, care, and education of the children of the marriage as may seem necessary or proper, and may at any time vacate or modify the same."”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Masek v. Masek
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.