Hurt v. Smith’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 federal appellate · 7 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 11 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““This Court has previously held that reference in a will to ‘debts and expenses’ included only those owing by the testatrix at death, funeral expenses, and administration expenses. Stewart v. Selder, 473 S.W.2d 3, 10 (Tex 1971). Such words are not to be construed as charging estate and inheritance taxes against the particular bequest. We hold that such a result is not changed by the insertion into a will of the language ‘costs and expenses of probate’. Since the testator specifically mentioned estate taxes in Article IV, he could just as easily have specified in Article VI that the property passing to the charities should be charged with such taxes. No such provision exists, and although the question is not free from difficulty, we hold that the phrase ‘just debts, funeral expenses, expenses of last illness, and costs and expenses incurred in the probate of this Will’ does not include estate and inheritance taxes under the circumstances presented in this case. See Stewart, 473 S.W.2d at 10 .” (Emphasis added)”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Jacobs v. Sellers