818 So. 2d 1221 - Hill v. Mitchell’s Empirical Analysis
2002
Citation profile
8
cited by 8 later decisions
1
states following
May 2018
most recently cited
8 state decisions
Relationships
Relies on Sellers v. Sellers · Ethredge v. Yawn · 418 So. 2d 807 - Natural Father v. United Meth. Child. Home · 757 So. 2d 264 - Grant v. Martin · Smith v. Watson
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 8 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[A]bandonment is "any course of conduct on the part of a parent evincing a settled purpose to forgo all duties and relinquish all parental claims to the child." Ethredge v. Yawn, 605 So.2d 761, 764 (Miss.1992). Abandonment "may result from a single decision" or "may arise from a course of circumstances." Ethredge, 605 So.2d at 764 . A court should objectively determine "wether under the totality of the circumstances, be they single or multiple, the natural parent has manifested his severance of all ties with the child" Id. Finally, "abandonment must be proven by clear and convincing evidence." Id.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“This is not "abandonment" in the traditional sense, of complete avoidance of contact for an extended period of time. But it is voluntary abandonment of parental responsibilities for over a decade in the child's life. This kind of abandonment may need to continue for a longer period of time before it becomes legally significant. Yet at some stage, even occasional visits by parent [sic] cannot prevent a finding that the parent has so removed herself from active participation in a child's life such that abandonment has occurred.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Schonewitz v. Pack“[t]he substantial passage of time, both before the entry of the temporary order and certainly between 1988 and 1999, was an acceptance by [the mother] of the present custody arrangement”
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.