King v. Rowan’s Empirical Analysis
1903
Citation profile
1 federal appellate · 9 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 10 later decisions — most recently March 1988
1 federal appellate · 9 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.
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 10 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““The charge proceeds upon the idea that the mere fact of being subscribing witnesses entitled their testimony to such greater weight. It does not proceed upon the theory that the value of the testimony of such witnesses is due to the fact simply that they do actually improve the opportunity given them for the more accurate and careful observation of the testator’s capacity to make a will, and all the circumstances surrounding the execution of the will. The value of the testimony of any witness depends upon his opportunity for observing the fact or facts about which he testifies, and, since subscribing witnesses are called on to witness the execution of the will and all attendant circumstances illustrative of the capacity of the testator to make a will, and to observe whether or not, though capable, he has been unduly influenced, their testimony on these points, if they did fully improve the opportunity given them for observation, is, of course, more valuable than that of witnesses who did not enjoy like opportunity for observation. But this value is based upon the fact that the subscribing witnesses have both enjoyed and improved such opportunity for observation denied to other witnesses, and not upon the simple fact that they are subscribing witnesses. Subscribing witnesses, in the varying cases, may be persons of greatly differing intelligence, and of very vastly different capacity for observing, and making proper deductions from such observation; and, besides, the opportun”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Thompson v. Smith““ . . . it is not always safe to take the language of a court arguendo, and use it literally in an instruction. Instructions must be suited to the facts of the particular case.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Thompson v. Smith
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.