Horace Gray

“ It cannot be assumed that the plaintiffs would not have introduced such evidence if the court had given them a standing in the case which would have made it avail them to do so. A judgment cannot be affirmed upon a ground not taken at the trial, unless it is made clear beyond doubt that this could not prejudice the rights of the plaintiff in error. ”

“ The plaintiffs at the outset having given notice of their intention to prove that Ann Bartlett was the common source of the titles both of themselves and of the defendant, and having been prevented from tracing their own title from her, any amount of proof that the defendant derived his title from her became wholly immaterial, and there was no occasion for the plaintiffs to make a specific offer of such proof. ”

“ But according to the common law, as generally recognized in the United States, wherever it has not been modified by statute, and certainly as prevailing in the District of Columbia, an agreement by an attorney at law to prosecute at his own expense a suit to recover land in which he personally has and claims no title or interest, present or contingent, in consideration of receiving a certain proportion of what he may recover, is contrary to public policy, unlawful, and void, as tending to stir up baseless litigation. ”