May v. May’s Empirical Analysis
1992
Citation profile
28 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 28 later decisions — most recently June 2017 · most notably Jakab v. Jakab (1995), In the Interest of R.D.Y. (2001)
28 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 Garza v. Alviar · Pool v. Ford Motor Co. · Kindred v. Con/Chem, Inc. · Glover v. Texas General Indemnity Co. · Dyson v. Olin Corp.
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 28 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The [statutory] language requiring a showing that appointment of the parent would significantly impair the child’s physical or emotional development creates a strong presumption in favor of parental custody and imposes a heavy burden on a nonparent. It is no longer adequate to offer evidence that the non-parent would be a better custodian of the child.... [T]he nonparent must affirmatively prove by a preponderance of the evidence that appointment of the parent as managing conservator would significantly impair the child, either physically or emotionally. This statute thus requires the nonparent to offer evidence of specific actions or omissions of the parent that demonstrate an award of custody to the parent would result in physical or emotional harm, to the child.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Gray v. Shook“requires evidence of specific actions or omissions of the parent that demonstrate an award of custody to the parent would result in significant physical or emotional harm to the child.... In other words, the nonparent must usually present evidence affirmatively showing conduct of the parent which -will have a detrimental effect upon the child, such as physical abuse, severe neglect, abandonment, drug or alcoholic abuse or very immoral behavior on the part of the parent.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Gray v. Shook“If the parent is presently a suitable person to have custody, the fact that there was a time in the past when the parent would not have been a proper person to have such custody is not controlling.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. In Re SMD
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.