Shippey v. Marafioti’s Empirical Analysis
2003
Citation profile
12 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 12 later decisions — most recently February 2026
12 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 Voss v. Ralston · Appeal of Pine Bluffs v. State Board of Equalization · Moralee v. Cadwell · Powder River Coal Co. v. Wyoming State Board of Equalization · Fontaine v. Board of County Com'rs of Park County
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 12 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Since adoption was not considered at common law, we must strictly construe adoption statutes. JK ex rel. DK v. MK, 5 P.3d 782 (Wyo.2000). Strict construction of Wyoming’s adoption statutes suggests that the legislature ultimately intended for adoption to sever all rights of the biological family members.... [[Image here]] The adoption decree severs the relationship between the child and his biological parents and creates a new and exclusive parent-child relationship between the child and the adoptive parents. This Court has recognized the import of the severance from the biological parents and the new unity with the adoptive parents: “A decree of adoption tears asunder forever the parent-child relationship and for all legal and practical purposes, that child is the same as dead to the parent affected. The parent has lost the right to ever again see the child or even know of his whereabouts.” Voss v. Ralston, 550 P.2d 481, 485 (Wyo.1976). A New York case extends this view logically: “Although there is nothing in the adoption law that says that rights between the adopted child and his natural brothers and sisters have been terminated or destroyed, nevertheless, when the natural parents relinquished their rights, the foundation or substructure which joined the blood relatives with the adopted child was removed. Therefore, natural blood relatives who must trace their relationship through a natural parent may not inherit or take from the adopted [child].””
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Hede v. Gilstrap“It is a basic rule of statutory construction that courts may try to determine legislative intent by considering the type of statute being interpreted and what the legislature intended by the language used, viewed in light of the objects and purposes to be accomplished. Furthermore, when we are confronted with two possible but conflicting conclusions, we will choose the one most logically designed to cure the mischief or inequity that the legislature was attempting to accomplish.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“providing for a complete substitution, the legislature created that system of distribution which is most likely to coincide with the intent of adopted children and is most consistent with the objective of having an adoption simulate the natural relationship as closely as possible.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage
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.