Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

“ The defendants said they would take their chances at a time when there were several ways in which the jury could have been prevented from seeing the papers or seeing them further. They stopped the court from even giving the jury instructions. It is too late now to complain.
It is objected that the judge erred in admitting affidavits of the jurymen that they were not influenced by the reading of the article. Mattox v. United States, 146 U.S. 140, 36 L. ed. 917, 13 Sup. Ct. Rep. 50. This error is immaterial, as the order overruling the new trial was right on other grounds. ”

“ The plaintiffs in error contend, and asked rulings to that effect, that a deed in that form by a disseisee to a stranger is void. We should be very slow to import into Hawaii a purely historical and uselessly technical reminiscence when the courts of the territory say that their usage has neglected it. ”

“ The suit is for two parcels of land, mostly accretions, on the ocean side of Front street, Hilo, in Hawaii. The plaintiffs in error are admitted to own the upland on the other side of the street. For the first question raised upon the merits it is enough to say that, subject to other questions to be discussed, these parcels formerly belonged to Benjamin Pitman, together with the upland ”