Court : US Supreme Court
Stuart v. Easton - 170 U.S. 383 (1898) U.S. Supreme Court Stuart v. Easton, 170 U.S. 383 (1892) Stuart v. Easton No. 197 Argued April 12-13, 1898 Decided May 9, 1898 170 U.S. 383 CERTIORARI TO THE CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT Syllabus The construction and legal effect of a patent for land is matter for the court, and evidence to aid in that construction is incompetent. The clear intent of the Act of the Province of Pennsylvania of March 11, 1752, authorizing trustees to acquire the land in question, was that while the legal estate in fee in the land should be acquired by the trustees, the beneficial use or equitable estate was to be in the inhabitants of the county, and the provision following the authorization to acquire the land, "and thereon to erect and build a courthouse and prison," was Page 170 U. S. 384 no more than a direction to the trustees as to the use to be made of the land after it had been acquired. The language of the habendum that t...
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United States v. Mille Lac Chippewas - 229 U.S. 498 (1913) U.S. Supreme Court United States v. Mille Lac Chippewas, 229 U.S. 498 (1913) United States v. Mille Lac Band of Chippewa Indians No. 736 Argued April 8, 9, 1913 Decided June 9, 1913 229 U.S. 498 APPEAL FROM THE COURT OF CLAIMS Syllabus When Congress passed the Act of January 14, 1889, adjusting relations with the Mille Lac Chippewas, a real controversy was subsisting which was thereby adjusted and composed, and the act is to be construed according to its plain and unambiguous terms. Indians, no less than the United States, are bound by the plain import of the language of an act of Congress and an agreement conferring substantial benefits on them. Under the Act of January 4, 1889, the Mille Lac Chippewas received substantial benefits, in consideration whereof they released their claims to lands in the Red Lake Reservation upon which there were valid preemption and homestead entries, and the United States is not boun...
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United States v. Reynolds - 250 U.S. 104 (1919) U.S. Supreme Court United States v. Reynolds, 250 U.S. 104 (1919) United States v. Reynolds No. 591 Argued March 4, 5, 1919 Decided May 19, 1919 250 U.S. 104 CERTIORARI TO THE CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE EIGHTH CIRCUIT Syllabus Under the Allotment Act of February 8, 1887, 5, c. 119, 24 Stat. 388, the twenty-five year trust period, with the attendant restriction upon the right of alienation, runs from the date of the trust patent, and not from the date of the approval of the allotment by the Secretary of the Interior, and an attempt to convey, made by an heir of the allottee within that period as extended by the President before its expiration is void. P. 250 U. S. 107 . 252 F. 65 reversed. Page 250 U. S. 105 The case is stated in the opinion. Page 250 U. S. 106 MR. JUSTICE PITNEY delivered the opinion of the court. This was a suit brought by the United States in behalf of Claudius Tyner and ten other persons, hei...
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Santa Fe Pacific R. Co. v. Lane - 244 U.S. 492 (1917) U.S. Supreme Court Santa Fe Pacific R. Co. v. Lane, 244 U.S. 492 (1917) Santa Fe Pacific Railroad Company v. Lane No. 170 Argued April 18, 1917 Decided June 11, 1917 244 U.S. 492 APPEAL FROM THE COURT OF APPEALS OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Syllabus In view of the power reserved to add to, alter, amend or repeal the act granting land to the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad Company (July 27, 1866, c. 278, 14 Stat. 292), and of the grantee's failure to comply with the conditions as to construction, Congress, without violating any vested right and consistently with the Fifth Amendment, could lay upon the grantee the cost of surveying the lands granted and require payment thereof as a condition to the issuance of patents, as was in fact done, in respect of said company, by the general provision in the Act of July 31, 1876, c. 246, 19 Stat. 121. The construction placed by the Land Department upon the Act of 1876, supra, to the...
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St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Ry. Co. v. McGee - 115 U.S. 469 (1885) U.S. Supreme Court St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Ry. Co. v. McGee, 115 U.S. 469 (1885) St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Company v. McGee Argued November 11, 1885 Decided November 23, 1885 115 U.S. 469 I N ERROR TO THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF MISSOURI Syllabus In order that an act of Congress should work a reversion to the United States for condition broken of lands granted by them to a state to aid in internal improvements, the legislation must directly, positively, and with freedom from all doubt or ambiguity manifest the intention of Congress to reassert title and resume possession. No such intention is manifested in the Act of July 28, 1866, 14 Stat. 338, so far as it affects the lands granted to the States of Arkansas and Missouri by the Act of February 9, 1853, 10 Stat. 155, except as to mineral lands. The facts are stated in the opinion of the Court. MR. CHIEF JUSTICE ...
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Roughton v. Knight - 219 U.S. 537 (1911) U.S. Supreme Court Roughton v. Knight, 219 U.S. 537 (1911) Roughton v. Knight No. 711 Submitted January 6, 1911 Decided February 20, 1911 219 U.S. 537 I N ERROR TO THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA Syllabus As the Forest Reserve provision of the Sundry Civil Act of June 4, 1897, c. 2, 30 Stat. 36, did not prescribe the method which those entitled to avail of its provision should pursue, it was competent for the Secretary of the Interior to adopt the rules and regulations, which this Court has already held to be reasonable and valid, and entitled to respect and obedience. Cosmos Co. v. Gray Eagle Oil Co., 190 U. S. 301 . One not following the rules and regulations adopted by the Land Department for exchange of lands under the Forest Reserve Act and not accompanying his relinquishment deed with a proper selection in lieu of the land relinquished, and whose relinquishment was returned to him by the Department, did not be...
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LORD WALKER AND LORD COLLINS (with whom Lord Phillips and Lady Hale agree) Introduction 1. The first Star Wars film (later renamed "Star Wars Episode IV “ A New Hope" in order to provide for "prequels" as well as sequels) was released in the United Statesin 1977. It was an enormous commercial success. It won an Oscar for best costume design. This appeal is concerned with intellectual property rights in various artefacts made for use in the film. The most important of these was the Imperial Stormtrooper helmet to which the trial judge (Mann J) referred in his judgment ([2008] EWHC 1878 (Ch), [2009] FSR 103, paras [2] and [121]): "One of the most abiding images in the film was that of the Imperial Stormtroopers. These were soldiers clad in white armour, including a white helmet which left no part of the face uncovered. . . The purpose of the helmet was that it was to be worn as an item of costume in a film, to identify a character, but in addition to portray something about that ch...
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Philadelphia & Trenton R. Co. v. Stimpson - 39 U.S. 448 (1840) U.S. Supreme Court Philadelphia & Trenton R. Co. v. Stimpson, 39 U.S. 14 Pet. 448 448 (1840) Philadelphia & Trenton Railroad Company v. Stimpson 39 U.S. (14 Pet.) 448 ERROR TO THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA Syllabus Action for the violation of a patent right, granted to the patentee for "a new and useful improvement in turning short curves on railroads." On 26 September, 1835, a second patent was granted, the original patent, granted in 1831, having been surrendered and cancelled on account of a defective specification, the second patent being for fourteen years from the date of the original patent. The second patent was in the precise form of the original, except the recital of the fact that the former patent was cancelled "on account of a defective specification" and the statement of the time the second patent was to begin to run. It was objected that ...
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Watt v. Western Nuclear, Inc. - 462 U.S. 36 (1983) U.S. Supreme Court Watt v. Western Nuclear, Inc., 462 U.S. 36 (1983) Watt v. Western Nuclear, Inc. No. 81-1686 Argued January 17, 1983 Decided June 6, 1983 462 U.S. 36 CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE TENTH CIRCUIT Syllabus The Stock-Raising Homestead Act of 1916 (SRHA) provided for the settlement of homesteads on lands the surface of which was "chiefly valuable for grazing and raising forage crops." Section 9 of the SRHA reserved to the United States title to "all the coal and minerals" in lands patented under the Act. When respondent mining company acquired a fee interest in land covered by a patent under the Act, it proceeded to remove gravel from a pit located on the land to use in paving streets and sidewalks in a company town where its workers lived. The Bureau of Land Management then notified respondent, and later determined, after a hearing, that the removal of the gravel constituted a trespa...
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Washington v. Glucksberg - 521 U.S. 702 (1997) OCTOBER TERM, 1996 Syllabus WASHINGTON ET AL. v. GLUCKSBERG ET AL. CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT No. 96-110. Argued January 8, 1997-Decided June 26,1997 It has always been a crime to assist a suicide in the State of Washington. The State's present law makes "[p]romoting a suicide attempt" a felony, and provides: "A person is guilty of [that crime] when he knowingly causes or aids another person to attempt suicide." Respondents, four Washington physicians who occasionally treat terminally ill, suffering patients, declare that they would assist these patients in ending their lives if not for the State's assisted-suicide ban. They, along with three gravely ill plaintiffs who have since died and a nonprofit organization that counsels people considering physician-assisted suicide, filed this suit against petitioners, the State and its Attorney General, seeking a declaration that the ban is, on ...
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