Wallace v. Wallace

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• relying on policy grounds rather than logic and science in deciding not to extend a cause of action for wrongful death to a nonviable fetus
• noting that “it would be incongruous for a mother to have a federal constitutional right to deliberately destroy a nonviable fetus, and at the same time for a third person to be subject to liability to the fetus for his unintended but merely negligent acts”
• no independent cause of action for nonviable fetus which is not born alive
• \[L]ife may begin with conception but causes of action do not.\
• “[L]ife may begin with conception but causes of action do not.”
• no cause of action for death of five week fetus

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).

Cited by

17 cases in this archive cite this case.

• Farley v. Sartin
  West Virginia Supreme Court· 1995-12-13· cited 64×
• Wiersma v. MAPLE LEAP FARMS
  South Dakota Supreme Court· 1996-02-14· cited 58×
• In re Caulk
  Supreme Court of New Hampshire· 1984-07-23· cited 41×
• Rambo v. Lawson
  Supreme Court of Missouri· 1990-11-20· cited 26×
• Coveleski v. Bubnis
  Supreme Court of Pennsylvania· 1993-11-16· cited 23×
• Hudak v. Georgy
  Supreme Court of Pennsylvania· 1993-11-16· cited 20×
• Thibert v. Milka
  Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court· 1995-03-13· cited 16×
• Kandel v. White
  Court of Appeals of Maryland· 1995-08-24· cited 16×
• Santana v. Zilog, Inc.
  Ninth Circuit· 1996-09-04· cited 15×
• Crosby v. Glasscock Trucking Co., Inc.
  Supreme Court of South Carolina· 2000-05-22· cited 14×
• Hamilton v. Scott
  Supreme Court of Alabama· 2012-05-18· cited 14×
• Miller v. Kirk
  New Mexico Supreme Court· 1995-10-17· cited 13×
• Lozier v. Brown Company
  Supreme Court of New Hampshire· 1981-02-23· cited 13×
• Bonte v. Bonte
  Supreme Court of New Hampshire· 1992-10-30· cited 9×
• Akl v. Listwa
  E.D. Pennsylvania· 1990-07-02· cited 6×
• Unnamed case
  Ninth Circuit· 1996-09-04
• Akers v. State
  Court of Appeals of Maryland· 2025-02-19

Cites

17 cases in this archive are cited by this case.

• Roe v. Wade
  Supreme Court· 1973-01-22· cited 5,581×
• Harris v. McRae
  Supreme Court· 1980-06-30· cited 1,702×
• Planned Parenthood of Central Missouri v. Danforth
  Supreme Court· 1976-07-01· cited 1,050×
• Woods v. Lancet
  New York Court of Appeals· 1951-12-06· cited 477×
• Diamond v. Chakrabarty
  Supreme Court· 1980-06-16· cited 377×
• Justus v. Atchison
  California Supreme Court· 1977-06-08· cited 284×
• Dietrich v. Inhabitants of Northampton
  Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court· 1884-10-27· cited 178×
• Smith v. Brennan
  Supreme Court of New Jersey· 1960-01-11· cited 134×
• Endresz v. Friedberg
  New York Court of Appeals· 1969-04-17· cited 122×
• Mone v. Greyhound Lines, Inc.
  Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court· 1975-07-16· cited 94×
• Merrill v. City of Manchester
  Supreme Court of New Hampshire· 1974-11-29· cited 93×
• Presley v. Newport Hospital
  Supreme Court of Rhode Island· 1978-11-08· cited 80×
• Poliquin v. MacDonald
  Supreme Court of New Hampshire· 1957-09-30· cited 79×
• Bennett v. Hymers
  Supreme Court of New Hampshire· 1958-12-31· cited 54×
• Toth v. Goree
  Michigan Court of Appeals· 1975-10-28· cited 36×
• Hebert v. Hebert
  Supreme Court of New Hampshire· 1980-05-12· cited 17×
• Green v. Smith
  Illinois Supreme Court· 1978-05-26· cited 16×