Bruce v. Bruce’s Empirical Analysis
1919
Citation profile
15 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 15 later decisions — most recently June 1958
15 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 Carter v. Gray
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 15 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“* * * we are of opinion that the enumeration of paragraphs made by a testator on the margin of the paper on which the will is written, to which no reference is made by the testator in the body of his will as a means for the identification of something it contains, is not controlling in ascertaining the intention of the testator, and two such paragraphs may be read as one, to prevent intestacy, unless there is something in the will to the contrary, if the intention of the testator to dispose of his entire estate is otherwise clear.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority““Punctuation, the enumeration of • paragraphs, or a mistaken use of either in a last will and testament, will not be regarded in its construction if to do so avoids the testamentary intention manifested by the language of the will, and they will be disregarded where necessary to a proper ascertainment of the testator’s intention.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Brooks v. Goff
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.