Watson v. Watson’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

18 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 18 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““slip-up,” peccadillo, or occasional indiscretion. He moved out of the marital home he had shared with his wife for twenty years, and began an open, continuous, adulterous affair. He began to invest his time, society, companionship and assets into the nurturing and development of another home leaving [the remaining spouse] to her own emotional survival. This is the stuff of “marital fault” which led the [supreme] court to reverse the chancellor for dividing the marital property equally, a division which obviously placed “minimal weight” upon fault. The central question is whether the adulterous conduct “impacted and burdened the stability and harmony of the marriage.””

   4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. Rodriguez v. Rodriguez · Rhodes v. Rhodes

2. “[T]he bottom line is one must arrive at the `fair market value' or that price at which property would change hands between a willing buyer and a willing seller when the former is not under any compulsion to buy and the latter is not under any compulsion to sell, both parties having reasonable knowledge of the relevant facts.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. 932 So. 2d 800 - Rush v. Rush

3. “[G]oodwill is simply not property; thus it cannot be deemed a divisible marital asset in a divorce action.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. 961 So. 2d 19 - Yelverton v. Yelverton