Cox v. Cox’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 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 2 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““The divorce judgment in this case states that the wife ‘is awarded the home of the parties’ and that the husband is ‘to pay the outstanding indebtedness thereon.’ The plain language of the judgment gives the wife the ownership of the home, not merely the equity in the home as the trial court ruled. The plain language of the judgment also places on the husband the responsibility for paying the indebtedness owed on the property; it does not state, as the trial court attempts to construe it, that he is responsible for paying that indebtedness only as long as the wife does not sell the property. The trial court reads into the language of the judgment something that is not there, i.e., that the obligation of the husband to pay the indebtedness would be extinguished if and when the wife sold the property. “... Just as the availability of insurance proceeds in Johns, Marshall, and Ravenel did not relieve the latter party of the responsibility for paying that indebtedness, the availability of proceeds from the sale of the property in the present case does not relieve the husband of the responsibility for paying the indebtedness imposed upon him in the parties’ divorce judgment.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 45 So. 3d 365 - Long v. Long

2. ““[T]he plain language of the divorce judgment indicates that the trial court envisioned that the [husband] would receive the 1992 Mazda truck free and clear of all encumbering debt as of the September 1994 date of the divorce judgment. Moreover, the judgment directed the [wife] to ‘assume’ and ‘pay for’ the debt on the truck and to ‘indemnify’ and ‘hold [the husband] harmless’ for the debt. However, it was only through the efforts of the [husband] in securing and maintaining insurance coverage and making a claim for the loss of the vehicle upon its total loss that the indebtedness allocated to the [wife] was discharged. As between the two parties before the trial court in this case, the divorce judgment clearly requires the [wife], not the [husband], to discharge the debt on the Mazda truck. We, therefore, reverse the judgment denying the [husband’s] request that the [wife] be required to pay him an amount equal to the indebtedness on the truck as of the date the debt was discharged by the [husband’s] insurer.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 45 So. 3d 365 - Long v. Long

3. “"[j]udgments are to be construed like other written instruments, and, if there is any uncertainty, the court must construe them so as to express the intent of the parties. The words of a judgment are to be given their plain and ordinary meanings, and the intentions of the parties are derived from them."”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 913 So. 2d 1093 - Jackson v. Jackson