Court : US Supreme Court
Atlantic Works v. Brady - 107 U.S. 192 (1883) U.S. Supreme Court Atlantic Works v. Brady, 107 U.S. 192 (1883) Atlantic Works v. Brady Decided March 5, 1883 107 U.S. 192 APPEALS FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THE DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS Syllabus 1. Letters patent granted to Edwin L. Brady, Dec. 17, 1867, for an improved dredge boat for excavating rivers, are invalid for want of novelty and invention. 2. The design of the patent laws is to reward those who make some substantial discovery or invention which adds to our knowledge and makes a step in advance in the useful arts. It was never their object to grant a monopoly for every trifling device, every shadow of a shade of an idea, which would naturally and spontaneously occur to any skilled mechanic or operator in the ordinary progress of manufactures. 3. Although letters patent are not set up by way of defense in an answer, yet if the invention patented thereby is afterwards put into actual use, their dat...
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United States v. Teller - 107 U.S. 64 (1883) U.S. Supreme Court United States v. Teller, 107 U.S. 64 (1883) United States v. Teller Decided January 29, 1883 107 U.S. 64 ERROR TO THE SUPREME COURT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Syllabus By a special act, B. was allowed a pension of fifty dollars per month, which was paid to him until he claimed and received, under a subsequent general act, seventy-two dollars per month. Held that he is not entitled to take under both acts. Error to the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia. Section 4 of the act of March 3, 1873, c. 234, entitled "An Act to revise, consolidate, and amend the pension laws," provides that from and after June 4, 1872, all persons entitled by law to a less pension than thereinafter specified who, while in the military or naval service of the United States and in the line of duty, have been so permanently and totally disabled as to render them utterly helpless, or so nearly so as to require the regular personal...
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Dingley v. Oler - 117 U.S. 490 (1886) U.S. Supreme Court Dingley v. Oler, 117 U.S. 490 (1886) Dingley v. Oler Argued March 8-9, 1886 Decided April 5, 1886 117 U.S. 490 ERROR TO THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THE DISTRICT OF MAINE Syllabus D, a dealer in ice, finding himself late in the season of 1879 in possession of a large quantity, which threatened to become a total loss, pressed 0, another dealer, to buy a part of it. 0 declined to purchase, but offered to take a cargo and "return the same to you next year from our houses." D accepted 0's offer, and delivered the cargo of ice to him that season. Early in July of the season of 1880, D verbally requested 0 to deliver the ice. On the 7th of July, 0 wrote to D: "It is not just or equitable for you to expect us to give you ice now worth $5.00 per ton when we have letters of yours offering the ice that we got at fifty cents per ton. We must therefore decline to ship the ice for you this season, and claim as our ri...
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Brown v. District of Columbia - 130 U.S. 87 (1889) U.S. Supreme Court Brown v. District of Columbia, 130 U.S. 87 (1889) Brown v. District of Columbia No. 137 Argued January 8-9, 1889 Decided March 11, 1889 130 U.S. 87 APPEAL FROM THE SUPREME COURT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Syllabus In view of the state of the art at the time of their issue, letters patent No. 101,590, granted to Turner Cowing, April 5, 1870, for "a wood pavement Page 130 U. S. 88 composed of blocks, each side having a single plain surface and one or more of the sides being inclined, and the blocks being so laid on their larger ends as to form wedge-shaped grooves or spaces to receive concrete or other suitable filling, substantially as set forth," are void for want of novelty. The substitution of blocks of wood of a given shape for blocks of stone of the same shape in the construction of a pavement neither involves a new mode of construction nor develops anything substantially new in the resulting pa...
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New York Belting Co. v. New Jersey Car Spring Co. - 137 U.S. 445 (1890) U.S. Supreme Court New York Belting Co. v. New Jersey Car Spring Co., 137 U.S. 445 (1890) New York Belting and Packing Company v. New Jersey Car Spring and Rubber Company No. 39 Argued October 23-24, 1890 Decided December 22, 1890 137 U.S. 445 APPEAL FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK Syllabus The first claim in letters patent No. 11,208, granted May 27, 1879, to the New York Belting and Packing Company for a new and useful design for rubber mats, viz.: "1. A design for a rubber mat, consisting of corrugations, depressions, or ridges in parallel lines, combined or arranged relatively, substantially as described, to produce variegated, kaleidoscopic, moire, stereoscopic, or similar effects, substantially as set forth," covers things which were then well known and were not new, and is therefore too broad to be sustained. Claims two and three in those let...
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Ingraham v. United States - 155 U.S. 434 (1894) U.S. Supreme Court Ingraham v. United States, 155 U.S. 434 (1894) Ingraham v. United States No. 379 Submitted October 23, 1894 Decided December 17, 1894 155 U.S. 434 ERROR TO THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THE DISTRICT OF RHODE ISLAND Syllabus Pointer v. United States, 151 U. S. 396 , sustained and applied to the point that it is not error to join distinct offenses in one indictment, in separate counts, against the same person. A person who presents to the Third Auditor of the Treasury what purports to be an affidavit before a justice of the peace in support of a fraudulent claim against the government is estopped to deny that the document was not an affidavit when presented in evidence in criminal proceedings against him for such fraudulent act. It is not necessary in the first instance, in order to prove such offense, to produce the commission of the justice or to introduce other official evidence of his appo...
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Donahue v. Lake Superior Ship Canal &c.; Co. - 155 U.S. 386 (1894) U.S. Supreme Court Donahue v. Lake Superior Ship Canal &c.; Co., 155 U.S. 386 (1894) Donahue v. Lake Superior Ship Canal, Railway and Iron Company No. 51 Argued November 2, 5, 1894 Decided December 10, 1894 155 U.S. 386 ERROR TO THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN Syllabus This case is governed by the rule laid down in Lake Superior Canal &c.; Co. v. Cunningham, ante, 155 U. S. 354 , but, as the land in controversy is near the crossing of two lines that had received separate grants, it is further subject to the rule that where two lines of road are aided by land grants made by the same act, and the lines of those roads cross or intersect, the lands within the "place" limits of both at the crossing or intersection do not pass to either company in preference to the other, no matter which line may be first located, or built, but pass in equal undivided moieties to each...
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Louisiana v. Garfield - 211 U.S. 70 (1908) U.S. Supreme Court Louisiana v. Garfield, 211 U.S. 70 (1908) Louisiana v. Garfield No. 7 Argued October 27, 28, 1908 Decided November 9, 1908 211 U.S. 70 ORIGINAL IN EQUITY Syllabus This Court has no jurisdiction of an action brought by a state against the Secretary of the Interior to establish title to, and prevent other disposition of, lands claimed under swamp land grants where questions of law and fact exist as to whether the United States still owns the lands. The United States is a necessary party, and the action cannot be tried without it. The facts are stated in the opinion of the court. Page 211 U. S. 74 MR. JUSTICE HOLMES delivered the opinion of the Court. This is a bill brought in this Court to establish the title of the State of Louisiana to certain swamp lands which it claims under the statutes of the United States, and to enjoin the defendants against carrying out an order making a different disposition of the lan...
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Shallenberger v. First State Bank of Holstein - 219 U.S. 114 (1911) U.S. Supreme Court Shallenberger v. First State Bank of Holstein, 219 U.S. 114 (1911) Shallenberger v. First State Bank of Holstein, Nebraska No. 445 Argued December 8, 1910 Decided January 3, 1911 219 U.S. 114 APPEAL FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THE DISTRICT OF NEBRASKA Syllabus Following, and on the authority of, Noble State Bank v. Haskell, ante, p. 219 U. S. 104 , sustaining the Bank Depositors' Guaranty Fund Acts of Oklahoma, held that a similar act of Nebraska providing for a guaranty fund and prohibiting banking except by corporations formed under the act, is not unconstitutional. 172 F. 999 reversed. The facts, which involve the constitutionality of the banking act of Nebraska, creating a depositors' guaranty fund, are stated in the opinion. Page 219 U. S. 120 MR. JUSTICE HOLMES delivered the opinion of the Court. This is a suit by many banks to prevent the Banking Board ...
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Ker & Co. v. Couden - 223 U.S. 268 (1912) U.S. Supreme Court Ker & Co. v. Couden, 223 U.S. 268 (1912) Ker and Co. v. Couden No. 11 Argued January 27, 1912 Decided February 1912 223 U.S. 268 ERROR TO THE SUPREME COURT OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS Syllabus The question of ownership under the Spanish law of accessions to the shore by accretion and alluvion has been a vexed one. The Roman law is not like a deed or a modern code prepared uno flatu, but history has played a large part in its development. Under the civil law, the seashore flowed by the tides, unlike the bank of rivers, was public property, belonging, in Spain, to the sovereign. Under the Spanish Law of Water of 1866, which became effective in the Philippine in 1871, lands added to the shore by accession and accretions belong to the public domain unless and until the government shall decide they are no longer needed for public utilities and shall declare them to belong to the adjacent estate. This rule applies n...
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