Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

“ Whether the supreme court was warranted in assuming the facts to be as it set them forth is no concern of ours. The important thing is that it was at pains to state them, and that it can have had no purpose in doing so other than to establish a liability under the contract at common law. If the statute imposed liability for delivery without a surrender of the bills of lading, whether the contract was performed or not, there was no need to go into these details. ”

“ And even when an erroneous decision upon a Federal question is made a ground, if the judgment also is supported upon another which is adequate by itself, and which contains no Federal question, the same result must follow, as a general rule. ”

“ The judge before whom the case was tried directed a verdict for the plaintiff, and, on exceptions, the supreme court of the state affirmed the judgment of the trial court. 77 Ark. 482, 113 Am. St. Rep. ”