William Burnham Woods

“ Negotiable bonds have been used as a means of raising money, not only by railroad companies, but by the national government, states, counties, and cities. To hold that the moment an unpaid coupon is left on a bond its character and negotiability are changed would greatly embarrass the traffic in such securities and lead to endless uncertainty and confusion.
The mere presence, therefore, of two unpaid coupons upon the bonds purchased by Mrs. Sprague was not of itself sufficient evidence of the dishonor of the bonds to which they were attached. ”

“ The intimation that the law required two elections for precisely the same purpose, one at which the inhabitants, and the other at which the electors, of the town should vote, imputes to the General Assembly an absurdity in legislation which the language of the act utterly fails to justify. ”

“ Thus, upon a bill filed for an injunction to restrain the infringement of letters-patent, and for an account of profits for past infringement, it is now the constant practice of courts of equity to try without a jury issues of fact relating to the title of the patentee, involving questions of the novelty, utility, prior public use, abandonment, and assignment of the invention patented. The jurisdiction of a court of equity to try such issues according to its own course of practice is too well settled to be shaken. ”

“ There is an absolute failure of proof to establish any bad faith on the part of the purchasers of the property in dispute. They acted as if they believed that they were getting a good title to the property, for they agreed to pay, and did pay, what at that time was an immense sum of money for it, to wit, $120,000.
The good faith of the Fortiers being beyond question, they and those claiming under them have the right to rely upon the preseription of five years to cure any irregularity in the proceedings which resulted in the sale. ”

“ It is not to be disputed that, except as forbidden by the bankrupt law, a debtor has the right to prefer one creditor over another, and that the vigilant creditor is entitled to the advantage secured by his watchfulness and attention to his own interests. Neither can it be denied that the mere failure to record a mortgage is not a ground for setting it aside for the benefit of subsequent creditors who have acquired no specific lien on the property described in the mortgage. ”

“ It would ill become a court of equity to render money decrees in favor of a complainant for the infringement of a patent which the court could see was void on its face for want of invention. Every suitor in a cause founded on letters patent should, therefore, understand that the question whether his invention is patentable or not, is always open to the consideration of the court, whether the point is raised by the answer or not. ”

“ The power to purchase the real estate in dispute was, therefore, clearly conferred by the statute. The fact that, in order to secure the same debt, it purchased other real estate not mortgaged to it, cannot affect the title to the land which it was authorized to purchase; but, if there was any force in this objection to the title, it could not be raised by the debtor, for where a corporation is incompetent by its charter to take a title to real estate, a conveyance to it is not void, but only voidable. The sovereign alone can object. ”

“ It is undoubtedly true that all citizens capable of bearing arms constitute the reserved military force or reserve militia of the United States as well as of the states, and, in view of this prerogative of the general government, as well as of its general powers, the states cannot, even laying the constitutional provision in question out of view, prohibit the people from keeping and bearing arms, so as to deprive the United States of their rightful resource for maintaining the public security, and disable the people from performing their duty to the general government. ”

“ If the mere refusal of a party to perform a parol contract for the sale of lands could be construed to be such a fraud as would give a court of equity jurisdiction to enforce it, the statute of frauds would be rendered vain and nugatory. The defendant knew, or ought to have known, that the statute requires such a contract as the one he seeks to enforce to be evidenced by writing. That he did not exact a contract in writing is his own fault. Courts of equity are not established to relieve parties from the consequences of their own negligence or folly. ”

“ Unless the plaintiff has a cause of action against the defendants, he is without remedy. To hold that the facts of this case do not give a cause of action against them would be to decide that a citizen might be subjected to a willful and malicious injury at the hands of private persons without redress; that an organized band of conspirators could, without subjecting themselves to any liability, fraudulently and maliciously obstruct and defeat the process of the courts, issued for the satisfaction of the judgment of a private suitor, and thus render the judgment nugatory and worthless. ”

“ The court having power to make the decree, it can only be impeached for fraud in the party who obtains it; a purchaser under it is not bound to look beyond the decree; if there is error in it of the most palpable kind, if the court which rendered it have in the exercise of jurisdiction disregarded, misconstrued, or disobeyed the plain provisions of the law which gave them the power to hear and determine the case before them,-the title of a purchaser is as much protected as if the adjudication would stand the test of a writ of error. ”

“ There is no rule of interpretation by which the statute can be held to apply to corporations who list only a small part of their property for taxation in Ohio. If the legislature had intended to allow an exemption in such a case, it could and would have expressed that purpose by words not admitting of doubt. As the shares of the plaintiff in error in the Western Union Telegraph Company were not only not expressly, but not even by fair implication, exempted from taxation, we are of opinion that the tax complained of was authorized by law. ”

“ The work which the defendant in error undertook to do, in preparing the necessary plans and specifications for the building, was a vast one, requiring much time and great labor and skill on his part, and the aid of draftsmen, clerks, and other assistants. To construe his contract to mean that he was to do all this work and receive no compensation for it unless he could induce the board of county commissioners to agree to his plan for the exterior design, and reject that of their own architect, is to give it a meaning which in our judgment neither of the parties to it ever contemplated. ”

“ Whatever power may be conceded to a state to prescribe conditions on which foreign corporations may transact business within its limits, it cannot be admitted to extend so far as to prohibit or regulate commerce among the states; for that would be to invade the jurisdiction which, by the terms of the constitution of the United States, is conferred exclusively upon congress. ”

“ The contention of the counsel for the government is that the forfeiture of the spirits on which a tax is due for the fraudulent acts of the distiller in seeking to evade its payment is a punishment for the offense, criminal or quasi criminal, of the distiller, and that the application of the proceeds of the forfeited spirits to the payment of the tax cannot have the effect of relieving him from the obligation of his bond. Such, in our opinion, is not the true construction of the law regulating the imposition and collection of the tax on distilled spirits. ”

“ The only way, therefore, in which one private person can deprive another of the equal protection of the laws is by the commission of some offense against the laws which protect the rights of persons, as by theft, burglary, arson, libel, assault, or murder. If, therefore, we hold that section 5519 is warranted by the thirteenth amendment, we should by virtue of that amendment, accord to congress the power to punish every crime by which the right of any person to life, property, or reputation is invaded. ”

“ Our opinion is, therefore, that the intention of congress to fix, by the appropriation acts to which we have called attention, the annual salaries of interpreters for the time covered by those acts at $300 each, is plain upon the face of the statute.
The whole question depends on the intention of congress as expressed in the statutes. Whether a simple failure by congress to appropriate any or a sufficient sum to pay the salary of an officer fixed by previous law is of itself an expression of purpose by congress to reduce the salary, we do not now decide. ”

“ Suppose a private person should announce his purpose to build a house after a design which he had seen in an architect's office, but before he begins the execution of his purpose changes his mind, never calls for or uses the plans, or even builds the house, is he liable to the architect for the value of the plans and for superintendence? ”

“ When a deed or mortgage, regular in appearance, and bearing the genuine signature and duly certified acknowledgment of the grantor or mortgagor is attacked, the evidence to impeach it should be clear and convincing. ”

“ The case of appellant is therefore an attempt to set up a secret trust as against bona fide purchasers for value without notice. But nothing is clearer than that a purchaser for a valuable consideration, without notice of a pior equitable right, obtaining the legal estate at the time of his purchase, is entitled to priority in equity as well as at law, according to the well-known maxim that when equities are equal the law shall prevail. ”

“ There is no relation of trust or confidence between mining parties which is violated by the sale and assignment by one partner to a stranger, or to one of the associates, of his share in the property and business of the association. It results as a conclusion from these premises that Bissell has suffered no wrong at the hands of either Hunter or Foss, on the ground that they were his tenants in common or partners, by reason of any contract made between the latter in reference to the purchase of the share of the Missourians in their joint enterprise. ”

“ Both the wife and her heirs or assigns have the privilege of being able to exonerate themselves from the debts contracted during the marriage by renouncing the partnership or community of gains.' From these provisions of the Code it is evident that if the widow, upon the dissolution of the community by the death of her husband, fails to renounce the community of gains, which, as the law stood at the time of the death of William Henderson, was equivalent to an acceptance of the community, she became personally bound to pay one-half of the debts of the community, but no more. ”

“ We regard the presentation of the claims to the commissioner of internal revenue for the refunding of a tax alleged to have been illegally exacted as a condition on which alone the government consents to litigate the lawfulness of the original tax. It is clearly not the intent of the statute to allown the collector to be sued unless the tax-payer has first applied for relief to the commissioner within the time and in the manner pointed out by law, and relief has been denied him. ”

“ To give a court of equity jurisdiction, the nature of the relief asked must be equitable, even when the suit is based on an equitable title. The plaintiff does not allege that the defendants, who are in possession of the premises, have the legal title, or that they obtained possession under any person who had it. Nor does she state any facts which connect them with her equity. They being mere naked trespassers in possession, she prays that they may be turned out of, and she, who has only an equitable title, may be put in, possession. ”

“ To hold that, on an indictment for bigamy, the first marriage can only be proven by eye-witnesses of the ceremony, is to apply to this offence a rule of evidence not applicable to any other.
The great weight of authority is adverse to the position of the plaintiff in error. ”

“ If a county is a corporation at all, it is necessarily a municipal corporation. But the supreme court of Nebraska, in the case of Woods v. Colfax Co. 10 Neb. 552, [S.C.. 7 N. W. Rep. 269,] expressly held that in Nebraska a county was not considered to be a municipal corporation. And it is clear that the authority given by the act of February 18, 1875, to Sherman and other counties, to fund the indebtedness evidenced by county warrants, by giving their bonds in exchange therefor, does not of itself make them municipal corporations. ”

“ It is a fundamental rule that in the construction of contracts the courts may look not only to the language employed, but to the subject-matter and the surrounding circumstances, and may avail themselves of the same light which the parties possessed when the contract was made. ”

“ The question, therefore, is, does any law relating to proceedings in bankruptcy authorize an injunction, at the instance of a purchaser of property at a bankruptcy sale, or his vendee, to stay proceedings in a state court? There is no act of congress expressly authorizing a circuit court of the United States to restrain by injunction, even at the suit of an assignee in bankruptcy, proceedings in a state court. ”

“ Section 5228 of the Revised Statutes of Ohio of 1880 provides 'that when, upon the pleadings, one party is entitled by law to judgment in his favor, judgment shall be so rendered by the court, though a verdict has been found against such party.' It is clear that, upon the defendant's counterclaim, which showed that he had no valid cause of action against the plaintiffs, no valid judgment could be rendered against them. ”

“ Unquestionably a prompt administration of the bankrupt's assets was one of the ends which that act had in view; but theis policy must be held to be subordinate to a just regard for the rights of both the creditors and debtors of the bankrupt estate. The debtor cannot be forced to pay before his contract requires it, merely because the assignee may be in haste to close up the estate. If his obligation were evidenced by a promissory note due at a future day, he could not be compelled to pay it before maturity in order that the estate might be speedily settled. ”

“ We remark, secondly, that, whether the use of an invention is public or private does not necessarily depend upon the number of persons to whom its use is known. If an inventor, having made his device, gives or sells it to another, to be used by the donee or vendee, without limitation or restriction, or injunction of secrecy, and it is so used, such use is public, even though the use and knowledge of the use may be confined to one person. ”