Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

“ It is true that the judgment of the United States court was held binding against the pleas to which it applies, but it is said that it is emptied of all real effect if a judgment can be entered upon the first and second pleas, referring to earlier stages of the same transaction, because it is said that there was no evidence to support those pleas and no finding upon them, so that to support the judgment by their presence on the record is a mere pretense, and either is a denial of due credit to the former judgment or deprives the plaintiff of his property without due process of law. ”

“ Even if the words of the judgment, 'renders judgment on said referee's report,' should be held to include the evidence as well as the referee's findings, and if it should be presumed that one of the courts below the supreme court of the state had reconsidered the evidence before entering or affirming the judgment, still, although there was evidence enough of the defendant's advances to the railway company, we might assume, for purposes of argument, that there was nothing sufficient to make out a promise on the plaintiff's part before March. ”

“ Memphis does not stop there. It further establishes that when the record discloses such other and completely adequate grounds this court commonly does not inquire whether the decision upon them was or was not correct, or reach a Federal question by determining that they ought not to have been held to warrant the result. ”