Mills v. Kelly’s Empirical Analysis
1983
Citation profile
23 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 23 later decisions — most recently November 2017
23 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 Stambaugh v. Hayes · First National Bank Ex Rel. Huckleby v. Nor-Am Agricultural Products, Inc. · 35 Cal. 2d 93 - Estate of Sargavak · Kelly v. Montoya · Bolt v. Davis
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 23 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“An essential requisite of every will is that at the time of execution the instrument must have been intended by the testator to effect a disposition or provision affecting his property at the time of his death. Section 45-2-502, supra; § 45-l-201(A)(45), N.M.S.A. 1978. Revocability during a testator’s lifetime, and an intent that the disposition take effect only after the death of the testator are essential hallmarks of a will. See McDonald v. Polansky, 48 N.M. 518 , 153 P.2d 670 (1944). As set out in Thompson, Law of Wills, supra, § 12 at 24: “In order that an instrument be entitled to probate as a will it must be testamentary in character, and whether it is testamentary in character depends upon the intention of the maker. The animus testandi gives the instrument its testamentary character, and when this is established it is a will if the requirements as to form and execution have been complied with * *”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“A. every will shall be in writing, signed by the testator or in the testator’s name by some other person in the testator’s presence and by his direction, and attested in the presence of the testator by two or more credible witnesses; and B. the witnesses to a will must be present, see the testator sign the will, or one sign it for him at his request as and for his last will and testament, and must sign as witnesses in his presence and in the presence of each other.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“it is not essential that the document expressly recite that the instrument shall take effect only at the death of the testator, if the instrument and circumstances under which it was written reasonably indicate that the document was intended to be testamentary in character.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Gushwa v. Hunt
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.