''Wilson v. Mason'', 5 U.S. (1 Cranch) 45 (1801), was a

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. It resolved a dispute between George Wilson and

Founding Father The following list of national founding figures is a record, by country, of people who were credited with establishing a state. National founders are typically those who played an influential role in setting up the systems of governance, (i.e. ...

George Mason George Mason (October 7, 1792) was an American planter, politician, Founding Father, and delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention of 1787, one of the three delegates present who refused to sign the Constitution. His writings, including ...

over of land along the

Green River Green River may refer to: Rivers Canada * Green River (British Columbia), a tributary of the Lillooet River *Green River, a tributary of the Saint John River, also known by its French name of Rivière Verte *Green River (Ontario), a tributary of ...

in present-day

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia ...

Background

In 1779 the

General Assembly A general assembly or general meeting is a meeting of all the members of an organization or shareholders of a company. Specific examples of general assembly include: Churches * General Assembly (presbyterian church), the highest court of presb ...

of the

Commonwealth of Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are ...

enacted a statute that authorized the sale of otherwise unowned

land Land, also known as dry land, ground, or earth, is the solid terrestrial surface of the planet Earth that is not submerged by the ocean or other bodies of water. It makes up 29% of Earth's surface and includes the continents and various isla ...

to private buyers. The act held that anyone who deposits 40 pounds into the state treasury is entitled to of land

West West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

of the Ohio River. The purchaser would receive a

receipt A receipt (also known as a packing list, packing slip, packaging slip, (delivery) docket, shipping list, delivery list, bill of the parcel, manifest, or customer receipt) is a document acknowledging that a person has received money or propert ...

for the amount of land to which he was entitled. He would then take the receipt to the Land Office and enter a description of the specific land he wanted to claim. Finally the

county surveyor A county surveyor is a public official in the United Kingdom and the United States. United Kingdom Webb & Webb describe the increasing chaos that began to prevail within this same period in field of county surveying in England and Wales, with c ...

would survey the land according to the description entered into the records of the Land Office and record the survey in the county records. In April 1780 Mason claimed in two

plat In the United States, a plat ( or ) (plan) is a cadastral map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. United States General Land Office surveyors drafted township plats of Public Lands Surveys to show the distance and bea ...

s along a

tributary A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drai ...

of the Green River. In October of the same year he restated and clarified his claim with the surveyor. In April 1783 Wilson entered a claim and survey for which included Mason's plat. The survey of Mason's land was conducted in the fall of 1783. Changes were made to the claim during the survey. Wilson filed suit to prevent the title to the land they both claimed transferring to Mason. He claimed that Mason's claim was too

vague In linguistics and philosophy, a vague predicate is one which gives rise to borderline cases. For example, the English adjective "tall" is vague since it is not clearly true or false for someone of middling height. By contrast, the word "prime" is ...

and that the survey was not conducted properly.

The decision

The essential issue before the court was one of when the claim was properly made. By the time the Supreme Court heard the case, the land was no longer in Virginia, but was now part of Kentucky. Also, the statutes at issue were passed by the Virginia

Legislature A legislature is an assembly with the authority to make law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its p ...

prior to the

ratification Ratification is a principal's approval of an act of its agent that lacked the authority to bind the principal legally. Ratification defines the international act in which a state indicates its consent to be bound to a treaty if the parties inte ...

of the United States Constitution. Nevertheless, the court felt bound to interpret the law as it was in 1780. The time-line was thus as follows: * Mason makes claim to land * Wilson makes claim to land * Mason surveys land and in so doing may have changed the original claim The court ruled that it was the claim and not the survey that was

dispositive In law, a dispositive motion is a motion seeking a trial court order entirely disposing of all or part of the claims in favor of the moving party without need for further trial court proceedings. "To dispose" of a claim means to ''decide'' the cl ...

. Thus, Mason's claim should have been the valid one. However, the Court concluded that the Mason's survey was performed contrary to the claim. Therefore, for Mason's title to be valid, the survey and not the claim must be dispositive. The Court ruled for Wilson and gave him title over the land in question.

Notes and references

External links

* {{George Mason, state=collapsed United States Supreme Court cases 1801 in United States case law George Mason United States Supreme Court cases of the Marshall Court

Background

The decision

See also

Notes and references

External links