Mullins v. Mullins’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

13 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 13 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “A person is negligent, if his inadvertence, incompetence, unskillfulness or failure to take precautions precludes him from adequately coping with a possible or probable future emergency. To be reckless, a person makes a conscious choice of his course of action, either with knowledge of the serious danger to others involved in it or with knowledge of the facts which would disclose the danger to a reasonable man.”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Megan M. Lee v. Shane D. Lee · Dozier v. Dozier

2. “Entitlement to an evidentiary hearing on a motion to set aside a default judgment depends on meeting the pleading requirements of Rule 74.05. Under the explicit terms of Rule 74.05(d), a motion to set aside a default judgment must state facts constituting both a meritorious defense and good cause for the default. When deciding whether a moving party has complied with the pleading requirements of Rule 74.05(d), courts examine the allegations set forth in the motion to set aside the default judgment and consider the contents of any accompanying materials such as affidavits, exhibits, and proposed answers.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. McElroy v. Eagle Star Group, Inc.

3. “[Appellant] must first show that he had good cause for the failure to answer the petition. Good cause contemplates conduct not intentionally or recklessly designed to impede the judicial process and which demonstrates his freedom from negligence in allowing the default to occur.... [Appellant] argues that there is not a scintilla of evidence that his conduct was intentionally designed to impede the judicial system. That argument miscasts the issue. It is [Appellant’s] burden to demonstrate his reasonable excuse for failure to respond to the summons.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. JE Scheidegger Co., Inc. v. Manon