Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

“ If that ground fails, it is apparent from the record, and is not disputed, that there is no other. To decide the case it is not necessary to consider anything except the allegations of the bill, and a large part of those may be laid on one side as not material to the question here.
The purpose of the bill is to reach and distribute, to the parties found entitled to the same, the proceeds of a sale to the United States of land which the defendants Stillman (the appellant) and Carson, as administrator, recovered in the above-mentioned action at law. ”

“ The parties to the agreement submitted their claims to these arbitrators, with somewhat blind provisions for substitution, and the arbitrators were to give their checks upon the fund to those whom they found entitled, for the sums found due. ”

“ It also recited the claims of others not parties to the agreement, and the belief of the contractors that those claims would fail at the trial. Therefore it was agreed that the parties to the contract would unite in procuring a judgment for the whole property in favor of Stillman and Carson, administrator, that upon its being procured a conveyance should be made by the said owners to the government, and a warrant for the price upon the Treasurer of the United States obtained from the Secretary of War. ”