''Sims's Lessee v. Irvine'', 3 U.S. (3 Dall.) 425 (1799), is an early
United States Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
case about conflicting land claims. General
William Irvine had been granted
Montour's Island
Neville Township is a township in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States. Its land area consists entirely of Neville Island, which is an island on the Ohio River. The population was 1,084 at the 2010 census.
History
The island was form ...
by Pennsylvania for his service in the
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...
, but the island was also claimed by
Charles Simms of Virginia. The Court unanimously found in favor of Simms, who had the earlier claim.
The Court held that: "A military right to unappropriated land in America, acquired under a royal proclamation of 1763, was made assignable by the law of Virginia, to an inhabitant of that State.
Obtaining a warrant and so locating it as to describe a particular parcel of land, gave to the assignee a complete equitable title, which was confirmed by the compact between Pennsylvania and Virginia.
A survey in Pennsylvania, and payment of the consideration, gave a legal right of entry, which supports an ejectment. This right remains legal, though it may have originally been held so from a defect of equitable powers, and though the courts of the United States now possess those powers."
[Reports of decisions in the Supreme Court of the United States: with notes, and a digest, Volume 1 (Little, Brown, and Co., 1870) pg. 298 https://books.google.com/books?id=NEQPAAAAYAAJ]
See also
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List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 3
This is a list of cases reported in volume 3 U.S. (3 Dall.) of ''United States Reports'', decided by the Supreme Court of the United States from 1794 to 1799. Case reports from other tribunals also appear in 3 U.S. (3 Dall.).
Alexander Dal ...
References
External links
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United States Supreme Court cases
United States Supreme Court cases of the Ellsworth Court
1799 in United States case law
Aboriginal title case law in the United States
History of Pennsylvania
History of Virginia
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