Davis v. Neilson’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

3 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 3 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Although Missouri adoption statutes recognize adult adoptions, statutes do not directly govern an adopted child’s right to inherit from a will. The testator’s intent governs. Whether an adopted child takes under a devise varies from ease to case according to the testator’s intent as determined by construction of the whole will in light of surrounding circumstances. We have no doubt that [testatrix] intended to include adopted children in the class to receive the residuary of her trust.... The trial court erred, however, in concluding that this resolved all questions before it. Unanswered is whether the trial court should have presumed [testatrix] to have intended to include within the gift class the particular adults adopted by Neil-son — persons with whom Neilson had no apparent prior family relationships. ⅜ * * ⅜ ⅜ * Inquiry into the motives behind an adoption should indeed be irrelevant ... if the court presumes the testator to have included in his or her gift class only individuals who would be a natural object of his or her bounty.... Even if a desire to make the adoptee qualify as a beneficiary motivated the adoption, that motive is immaterial so long as the courts presume a testator to include within a gift class only persons who have a familial tie to the testator’s family. Restricting the presumption of inclusion to only individuals who are the natural object of the testator’s bounty should be sufficiently effective in sifting the bounty hunters from the class.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Boatmen's Trust Co. v. Conklin

2. “Adult adoptions in estates and trusts cases have been rife with controversy. This controversy has led to three lines of cases among the jurisdictions in deciding the effect of an adult adoption on the construction of a testamentary instrument. The oldest line presumes all adult adoptees to be included in class gifts to children. A second line presumes all adult adoptees to be excluded from class gifts to children. A third line takes the middle ground by allowing exceptions to presumptive inclusion or exclusion depending on particular circumstances.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 177 Conn. App. 163 - In re Eder

3. “[C]ommon sense tells us that a donor would normally expect anyone partaking of his bounty to be a true family member and not just some willing adult adopted for the purpose of reducing or defeating a gift-over to others.... Common sense tells us that [the testator], by inserting adopted children in the class described as [the settlor's] issue, intended to include only individuals with some familial bond to her family-individuals to whom [the settlor] felt a familial bond of love and duty, such as adult stepchildren.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 177 Conn. App. 163 - In re Eder