John McKinley

“ Our derivative title under those complainants, and our actual possession of the said tract of land being admitted, our right to the possession must be sustained at law or equity.
In the Cincinnati common case, 6 Pet., 441, the defendant's claim to right of possession was established by no such formal and solemn proof as here presented, and yet sustained as a bar to the ejectment. The matters put in issue by the parties in our record, and found by the decree, are proven and established conclusively, till the judgment be reversed. ”

“ No act of Congress applies to a grant held by a non-resident of the territory in October, 1795, which has not been laid before the board of commissioners. It is true that no act has declared such grants void; but the legislature has ordered the lands to be sold which were not appropriated in a manner recognized by law, and the land in controversy is of that description. ”

“ A mortgagee, whose debt has been paid to him, or a party holding the legal title as a resulting trust, or that of a trustee by deed, after the trust is fully executed, cannot maintain ejectment against his cestui que trust, so entitled to call for the immediate conveyance of the legal estate. ”

“ Again, it is a decree of a court of equity. The title of the plaintiff is a statutory title from the United States, whose authority no one doubts. Can equity interfere? The act of Congress says that the decision of the commissioners shall be final. The rule of law is positive, and equity cannot relieve against a positive law. 1 Story Eq., §§ 10, 11, 64.
An action at law cannot be maintained upon a decree in equity. 8 Wheat., 697; 3 Barn. & Ad., 52.
If the party cannot maintain a suit, he cannot defend himself in ejectment. ”

“ To the reading of which record and proceedings, as evidence to the jury, the plaintiffs objected, on these grounds: 'First. That it does not purport to be a record on its face, and in its context. Secondly. That said record does not disclose, nor contain a final decree; neither the said record, nor the said decree therein being signed by the judges of the said Supreme Court of Mississippi. Thirdly. That the pleadings and context of said record show, that the chancery suit was entertained and treated by said Supreme Court as a matter of original jurisdiction ”

“ Himely, Chief Justice Marshall said, 'A sentence professing on its face to be the sentence of a judicial tribunal, if rendered by a self-constituted body, or by a body not empowered by its government to take cognisance of the subject it had decided, could have no legal effect whatever. ”

“ In 1 Pet., 558, 559, 560, this principle is fully maintained. True, the statute of Ohio is referred to for its authority, but quaere, if that statute should be regarded as any thing more than declaratory of the legal effect of a decree of title. ”