89 Cal. App. 2d 80 - Bemis v. Bemis’s Empirical Analysis
1948
Citation profile
49 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 53 later decisions — most recently March 1995 · most notably 24 Cal. 3d 725 - In Re Marriage of Carney (1979), Stack v. Stack (1961)
49 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 Foster v. Foster · 16 Cal. 2d 190 - Prouty v. Prouty · 49 Cal. App. 2d 581 - Washburn v. Washburn · Munson v. Munson · Juri v. Juri
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 53 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““Upon the undisputed evidence in the case, section 138 of the Civil Code is controlling. When facts are established which clearly make applicable the quoted provision of the section that custody should be awarded to the mother, it is not within the discretion of the court to ignore it. There is no more sound or universally recognized rule of law to be found in the books. Where the court finds that ‘other things’ are equal, young children are invariably given into the custody of their mother. We say ‘invariably’ because we have not found in our reported cases a single instance in which the custody of young children has been awarded to their father upon evidence that the mother was a fit and proper person to have their custody and was able to give them advantages equal to those that they would enj oy in the home of the father. ’ ’”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage““(2) As between parents adversely claiming the custody, neither parent is entitled to it as of right; but other things being equal, if the child is of tender years, it should be given to the mother; if it is of an age to require education and preparation for labor and business, then to the father.””
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“... if the evidence clearly establishes that the children will have equal advantages in the home of the mother and that the mother has demonstrated her ability and willingness to perform her maternal duties properly, the law requires that young children be placed with her. * * *”
1 later decision quote this exact passage
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.