Gabriel Duvall

“ The reason of the authority to grant the allowance is obvious. By an independent command, at a separate post, the officer is subject to additional expense, and an increase of duty. An officer may be said to command at a separate post, when he is out of the reach of the orders of the Commander in chief, or of a superior officer, in command in the neighbourhood. He must then issue the necessary orders to the troops under his command; it being impracticable to receive them from a superior officer. ”

“ Darnall was not more than ten or eleven years of age at the time of the death of his father; and, by a law of the state of Maryland, it is provided that no manumission by last will and testament shall be effectual to give freedom to any slave, unless the said slave shall be under the age of forty-five years, and able to work and gain a sufficient maintenance and livelihood at the time the freedom intended to be given shall take place. ”

“ The ship Neptune, owned and commanded by Captain Myrick, arrived at New Orleans from London on the 20th of October, 1815. On the next day he appeared, in company with George M. Ogden, one of the appellants, at the custom house, and reported the Neptune as a registered vessel of the United States, belonging to Wilmington North Carolina, where, he alleged, and it was so stated in the manifest, she was registered. He declared, at the same time, that he had lost the register in ascending the Mississippi, and required a new one to be issued in lieu of it. ”

“ Admitting the universality of the maxim, de jure respondent judices, de facto juratores, it will not be denied, that it is the province of the Court to decide upon the force and legal effect of a sealed instrument. The deed conveys, by metes and bounds, the land contained in the second grant to Rowan, corresponding precisely, in courses and distances, from the beginning to the given line inclusive; and will not admit of the construction, that the first tract, called Walnut Grove, was conveyed, merely because it includes Livingston's cabin. ”

“ The law seems to be settled, that, when the wife is left without maintenance or support, by the husband, has traded as a feme sole, and has obtained credit as such, she ought to be liable for her debts. And the law is the same, whether the husband is banished for his crimes, or has voluntarily abandoned the wife. It is for the benefit of the feme covert, that she should be answerable for her debts, and liable to an action in such a case ”

“ That evidences of the public debt are made, by law, payable at their nominal value, for lands sold by the United States; and, therefore, stock is receivable as money at par. And it appearing, by the account offered in evidence, that the far greater part of the balance claimed is in money, it was proper and legal evidence to support the declaration ”

“ No more than one officer can be entitled to double rations, at the same station.'
The Adjutant and Inspector General performed the duties of his office from November 1814, and charged the compensation as allowed by law, until the year 1816, when a difficulty arose on the subject of his fuel and quarters, from the circumstance of there being no disbursing office in the Quartermaster's department, at the seat of government; and from the regulations of the War Department, then in force, prohibiting an allowance in money, to be made to officers in lieu of these emoluments. ”

“ The Orphans' Court has a general power to administer justice in all matters relative to the affairs of deceased persons, according to law. The commission to be allowed to an executor or administrator, is submitted to the discretion of the Court, 'not under five per cent. nor exceeding ten per cent. on the amount of the inventory.' If the executor has a claim against the deceased, it shall stand on an equal footing with other claims of the same nature. ”

“ And the collector was of opinion, until he consulted the district attorney, that he ought not to be permitted to take the oath prescribed, as he could not do it without swearing to a fact which was known to be untrue. For this reason he refused to administer the oath to Captain Myrick in his life time.
There are strong grounds for the belief that the Neptune never had a genuine register. She is represented in the manifest to have been built at Boston-to be owned by Captain Myrick of New-York-and that she belonged to the port of Wilmington, in North Carolina. ”

“ The material from which the spirits are extracted, appears to be the object of the law. The rectification or purification of spirits, after their distillation has been complete, in order to fit them for certain purposes of combination with other materials, is no part of the process of distillation, and is not a breach of the provisions of the act of congress. The distillation of spirits, and the rectification of them after they are distilled, appear to be distinct and separate acts. ”

“ The question submitted by the arguments of the counsel is, whether the contracts and engagements of Elizabeth Rhea, made in the absence of her first husband, and prior to her marriage with the defendant, Rhea, are obligatory; and to what extent a woman who has been abandoned by her husband, may contract debts, for which she is personally liable. ”

“ The settlement called Livingston's cabin, and that made by Helm, and transferred by Helm to Piles, are included in his own grant for two hundred acres, dated Augus, 15, 1808, and also within the plaintiff's grant, and principally within that part of Rowan's first grant, which interferes with that of the plaintiffs. His third possession is contained within Rowan's first grant, which interferes with the plaintiff's grant as has already been stated. All these possessions, being founded on grants, are protected by the act of limitations, the provisions of which are too plain to be misunderstood. ”

“ In the discharge of his ordinary duties, he has no distinct command; his duties consist in details of service, and not in active military command. The order of the 16th of March 1816, directing double rations to be allowed to officers commanding military departments, is construed to relate to the geographical sections of country, into which the two divisions of the army are divided, and which were denominated departments; and intended to designate the extent of actual command, given to the officer commanding each department ”

“ But the more material consideration is, that the bill of exceptions itself appears on the record not to have been taken at all, until after judgment. It is a settled principle, that no bill of exceptions is valid, which is not for matter excepted to at the trial. ”

“ They all agree in their testimony, that Nicholas was well grown, healthy and intelligent, and of good bodily and mental capacity: that he and his brother Henry could readily have found employment, either as house servant boys, or on a farm, or as apprentices; and that they were able to work and gain a livelihood. The testator devised to each of them real and personal estate to a considerable amount. ”

“ A feme covert, who has been abandoned by her husband, is not permitted to marry a second time, with impunity, until her husband shall have been absent seven years, and shall not have been heard of, during that time. ”

“ If she had been built at Boston, and belonged at the time to a person residing in New-York, it is more than probable that, pursuant to the provisions of the third section of the act, she would have been registered at one of those places. If Captain Myrick or the present owners had been desirous of obtaining correct information on the subject, it would have been furnished on application to the treasury department. ”

“ That it was distinctly understood between them, that the testator had agreed to pay his board, to find him in clothing, and to pay his expenses generally; that it was customary among merchants to take young men, of a certain age, for their board and clothes ”

“ The bill further states, that the said Daniel and Elizabeth, a few days before the date of the deed to the complainant, viz: on the tenth of May 1819, but after the agreement to convey to the complainant, fradulently conveyed the same premises to the defendant, Erskine, an infant son of said Elizabeth, in fee, in consideration of natural love and affection;-that he, the said Rhenner, had, at a considerable expense, at the request, and with the knowledge and approbation of the defendants, erected improvements on the lot, and put a tenant in possession of the same ”

“ The plaintiff in error in this case, who was defendant in the Court below, was a receiver of public money, in one of the land offices in the District of Mississippi, and being indebted to the United States in a large amount, an action of assumpsit was instituted against him, to recover the balance due, which was stated to be $102,478 85 1/2, made up of cash and stock; viz. ”

“ In the case of Deborah Gregory vs. Paul, executor of Warburton; reported in the 15th volume of Mass. Rep.; all these cases are reviewed by the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts; and the law recognised. ”