Court : US Supreme Court
Decided on : Dec-06-1886
McCreery v. Haskell - 119 U.S. 327 (1886) U.S. Supreme Court McCreery v. Haskell, 119 U.S. 327 (1886) McCreery v. Haskell Argued November 12, 1886 Decided December 6, 1886 119 U.S. 32 ERROR TO THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA Syllabus Where, under the eighth section of the Act of July 23d 1866, "to quiet land titles in California," a survey is made by the United States Surveyor General for California of a claim to land under a confirmed Mexican grant, and land is set off by him in satisfaction of the grant, the survey is operative without the approval of the Commissioner of the General Land Office. Land lying outside of such survey then becomes subject to state selection in lieu of school sections covered by the grant, and is open to settlement under the preemption laws. As between the state and the settler, the party which first commences the proceedings required to obtain the title, if they are followed up to the final act for its transfer, is considered to ha...
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
Decided on : Mar-01-1886
Van Brocklin v. Tennessee - 117 U.S. 151 (1886) U.S. Supreme Court Van Brocklin v. Tennessee, 117 U.S. 151 (1886) Van Brocklin v. Tennessee Submitted November 17, 1885 Decided March 1, 1886 117 U.S. 151 ERROR TO THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE Syllabus Property of the United States is exempt by the Constitution of the United States from taxation under the authority of a state. Land in a state which, pursuant to acts of Congress for the laying and collecting of direct taxes, is sold, struck off and purchased by the United States for the amount of the tax thereon and is afterwards sold by the United States for a larger sum or redeemed by the former owner is exempt from taxation by the state, while so owned by the United States, and, for nonpayment of taxes assessed by the state during that time, cannot be sold afterwards. The amended bill in this case was filed in the Chancery Court of Shelby county, in the State of Tennessee, by the state and its proper officers...
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
Decided on : Apr-19-1886
United States Rifle & Cartridge Co. v. Whitney Arms Co. - 118 U.S. 22 (1886) U.S. Supreme Court United States Rifle & Cartridge Co. v. Whitney Arms Co., 118 U.S. 22 (1886) United States Rifle & Cartridge Co. v. Whitney Arms Company Argued March 10-11, 1886 Decided April 19, 1886 118 U.S. 22 APPEAL FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THE DISTRICT OF CONNECTICUT Syllabus The decision of the Commissioner of Patents, granting an application for a patent a former application for which has been rejected or withdrawn is not conclusive upon the question of abandonment of the invention in a suit brought for the infringement of the patent. An inventor whose application for a patent has been rejected by the Patent Office and withdrawn by him and who, without substantial reason or excuse, Page 118 U. S. 23 omits for eight years to reinstate or renew it, during which time many patents embodying the substance of the invention are granted to other persons, must be held to ha...
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
Decided on : Mar-22-1886
Fulkerson v. Holmes - 117 U.S. 389 (1886) U.S. Supreme Court Fulkerson v. Holmes, 117 U.S. 389 (1886) Fulkerson v. Holmes Argued March 11, 1886 Decided March 22, 1886 117 U.S. 389 ERROR TO THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF VIRGINIA Syllabus In ejectment, after proving a patent of the premises from the Virginia to S.Y. in 1787, the plaintiff offered in evidence a duly recorded deed from S.C.Y., his son and sole heir, to J.H., dated in 1819, proved the handwriting of the magistrate who took the acknowledgment of it and the signature of a witness who had been dead over fifty years, and showed that the patent and deed were found among the papers of J.H. after his death in 1834. Held that the deed was admissible in evidence as an ancient document without further proof. An ancient deed reciting the death intestate of a former owner of lands conveyed by it, and that the grantor in the deed was his only son and heir in whom title to the lands vest...
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
Decided on : Apr-19-1886
Dobson v. Dornan - 118 U.S. 10 (1886) U.S. Supreme Court Dobson v. Dornan, 118 U.S. 10 (1886) Dobson v. Dornan Argued March 31, 1886 Decided April 19, 1886 118 U.S. 10 APPEAL FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA Syllabus The specification of letters patent for a design for a carpet, which is accompanied by a photographic illustration, and merely states that the nature of the design is fully represented in such illustration, and claims "the configuration of the design hereunto annexed, when applied to carpeting," sets forth a sufficient description and claim, and the patent is valid. Page 118 U. S. 11 An interlocutory decree which awards a recovery for profits and damages for the infringement of a patent for a design for a carpet, and orders an account of the profits from infringing by the manufacture, use, and sale of carpeting bearing the design and of the damages by reason of the infringement, is not open to the objection t...
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
Decided on : Mar-01-1886
Pickard v. Pullman Southern Car Company - 117 U.S. 34 (1886) U.S. Supreme Court Pickard v. Pullman Southern Car Company, 117 U.S. 34 (1886) Pickard v. Pullman Southern Car Company, 117 U.S. 34 (1886) Argued January 25-26, 1886 Decided March 1, 1886 117 U.S. 34 ERROR TO THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THE MIDDLE DISTRICT OF TENNESSEE Syllabus Section 6 of the act of the Legislature of Tennessee, passed March 16, 1877, Laws of 1877, c. 16, p. 26, which imposes a privilege tax of $50 per annum on every sleeping car or coach used or run over a railroad in Tennessee and not owned by the railroad on which it is run or used, is void so far as it applies to the interstate transportation of passengers carried over railroads in Tennessee, into or out of or across that state, in sleeping cars Page 117 U. S. 35 owned by a corporation of Kentucky and leased by it for transportation purposes to Tennessee railroad corporations, the latter receiving the transit fare and the for...
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
Decided on : May-10-1886
Mullan v. United States - 118 U.S. 271 (1886) U.S. Supreme Court Mullan v. United States, 118 U.S. 271 (1886) Mullan v. United States Argued April 1, 1886 Decided May 10, 1886 118 U.S. 271 APPEAL FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THE DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA Syllabus When the authority of the Attorney General of the United States to commence proceedings to vacate a patent for public lands does not appear on the face of the bill, it may be shown in this Court if the bill is objected to here for want of it. Coal lands are mineral lands within the meaning of that term as used in the statutes regulating the disposition of the public domain. As coal lands were excepted from the grants to California of Sections 16 and 36 in 6 of the Act of March 3, 1853, 10 Stat. 244, 246, the state could not under the provisions contained in 7 of that act, ib., 247, select coal lands in lieu of such Sections 16 and 37 as might be occupied before survey or reserved for public use...
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
Decided on : Jan-01-1886
O'Neal v. Kirkpatrick - 72 U.S. 791 (1886) U.S. Supreme Court O'Neal v. Kirkpatrick, 72 U.S. 5 Wall. 791 791 (1886) O'Neal v. Kirkpatrick 72 U.S. (5 Wall.) 791 ERROR TO THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THE DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA Syllabus On the 13th of May, 1861, the Legislature of California passed an act which provides for the reclamation and sale of the "swamp and overflowed lands" of the state. The twenty-seventh section declares that the provisions of the act shall "apply equally to all salt marsh or tide lands in the state as to swamp and overflowed." On the next day -- the 14th of May -- the same legislature passed another act ratifying and confirming the sales of all marsh and tide lands belonging to the state, which bad been made according to the provisions of any acts of the legislature for the sale of "swamp and overflowed lands," and declaring that "any of said marsh and tide lands that remained unsold might be purchased under the provisions of the l...
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