Wilson v. Martinez’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. ““A party shall not testify where the adverse party is the guardian or trustee of either a deaf and dumb or an insane person, or of a child of a deceased person, or is an executor or administrator, or claims or defends as heir, grantee, assignee, devisee or legatee of a deceased person, except: “1. To facts which occurred subsequent to the appointment of the guardian or trustee of an insane person, and, in other cases, subsequent to the time the decedent, grantor, assignor or testator died; “2. When the action or proceeding relates to a contract made through an agent, by a person since deceased, and the agent testifies, a party may testify on the same subject; “3. If a party, or one having a direct interest, testify to transactions or conversations with another party, the latter may testify as to the same transactions or conversations; “4. If a party offer evidence of conversations or admissions of the opposite party, the latter may testify concerning the same conversations or admissions; “5. In an action or proceeding by or against a partner or joint contractor, the adverse party shall not testify to transactions with, or admissions by, a partner or joint contractor since deceased, unless the same were made in the presence of the surviving partner or joint contractor; and this rule shall be applied without regard to the character in which the parties sue or are sued; “6. If the claim or defense is founded on a book account a party may testify that the book is his account book”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Consolidated Construction, Inc. v. Smith

2. ““There must be an end to litigation and disputes and it is just as important that there come a time when unasserted rights must be held to be forever lost. The more complex and involved our civilization and ways of life become, the more necessary it is that the business and affairs of people be allowed to proceed without a sword of Damocles hanging interminably over their heads in the form of possible unannounced claims, long delayed in their assertion and which, if timely prosecuted, might have been defeated upon merit.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Herndon v. Hege