From What Court and Year Is the Oldest American Court Decision on Westlaw?

I didn't know until I looked it up just now.

Comments

[LawTalkingGuy]

My guess for court is going to be the Superior Court of Judicature for the Province of Massachusetts Bay.

I don't want to attempt a year.

[Lawperson5000]

I don't know about your newfangled "Westlaw" reporter Prof. Volokh. According to my dusty bookshelf, the first case in a US reporter was Anonymous, 1 Dall. 1 (1754) from the Supreme court of Pennsylvania:
"ADJUDGED by the Court, that the statute of Frauds and Perjuries does not extend to this Province, though made before Mr. Penn's Charter: The Governor of New-York having exercised
a jurisdiction here, before the making that Statute; by Virtue of the Word Territories, in the Grant to the Duke of New York and New-Jersey."

That's the whole opinion and I admire its brevity, though I admit I may be lacking some context (where was the word "territories" written to which this refers?). By contrast, Justice Scalia's dissent in King v. Burwell took 21 pages and was filled with complete nonsense. What I would give for Justices William Allen, Lawrence Groden, and Caleb Cowpland to replace Alito, Thomas, and Gorsuch, even though this decision is all I know about those three Pennsylvanian jurists, and if they were alive today they would be even older than Justice Breyer.

[Dilan Esper]

That's 1 U.S. 1 to your friends.

[Lawperson5000]

Yeah I got all originalist there (it will not happen again). Ephraim Kirby's Connecticut reporter pre-dates Dallas' I think, but the cases collected don't go as far back. In any event, it always seemed to me that Cranch got all the glory. Maybe because Marbury was in under his watch. Or maybe because his name was Cranch.

[Dilan Esper]

I think it was the 1870's when the Court stopped using the reporter's name in the cite. The reporters should have gone on strike after that.

[Lawperson5000]

I agree. And what kind of name is F.3d anyway?

[Schroeder4213]

It's what I say when I come out of a movie where I have to use those goofy glasses.

[James Pollock]

Stop going to those point-three-dee movies, then.

[title54]

Stone v. Boreman, 1 H. & McH. 1, Provincial Court, Royal Province of Maryland (1658).

[Eugene Volokh]

Indeed.

[Lawperson5000]

That case was reported in Harris and McHenry sometime between 1780 and 1799. I wonder what source document they used to transcribe the case? Is there an archive of provincial decisions from Ann Arundel county? It's not among my leather bound books shelved on wood that smells of rich mahogany. I should be ashamed to call myself of member of the Maryland Bar.

From Becker, Robert C. (1978) "Ancient Decisions," University of Baltimore Law Forum: Vol. 8: No. 2, Article 17.
Available at: http://scholarworks.law.ubalt.edu/lf/vol8/iss2/17

"There it is, volume one, number one. It is all done in one paragraph and about one-quarter of the page. Still it is the first
reported case in United States jurisprudence. In days when Maryland was more freely dispensed than it is today, one William Boreman filed a preliminary claim to four hundred acres at Nanjemoy. Charles County people take note. He had the ground surveyed, occupied it, and considered it his own. He failed, however, to perfect a patent to his land within the time
specified in the original warrant. Meantime, Captain William Stone, apparently realizing the defect in Boreman's claim, filed and perfected a patent to the same land. When Captain Stone undertook to occupy land then his, dispute naturally arose. It came to the attention of the provincial court. Stone v. Boreman 1 H & McH 1 (1658). The court held that Boreman had lost his claim by failing timely to perfect his
patent. Stone was the rightful owner of the land in question. Boreman was still entitled to four hundred acres and might
have it elsewhere in a "convenient place." [d. at 2. Basic equity is affordable where land is plentiful. The interesting part of this rather short report concerns the treatment of the surveyor who laid out Boreman's original claim. The court seems to hold that he should have known of the fault in Boreman's filing and should have either warned him of it or simply refrained from the commission. At any rate he is held responsible for surveying, without charge, such new claim as Boreman shall take and perfect. "

[QuantumBoxCat]

How is a 1658 case from the Province of Maryland considered an "American Court Decision?"

[David Nieporent]

Where do you think Maryland is, exactly?

[James Pollock]

You're confusing where Maryland is NOW with where Maryland was when the case was decided. The states were United, at the time, under the crown of England. Colonial-era cases are properly British cases, not American.

Aha, but wait! At Independence, many states expressly adopted the common-law of England. So, the first published American case need not have been decided in any of the territory that ultimately became part of the United States of America. Yes, a technicality, but isn't that what precedent is all about?

[Hunting Guy]

Just curious. I wonder what’s the current status of those plots?

[Lawperson5000]

Fort Meade/NSA? Maryland Capitol? Naval Academy? The town of Glenn Burnie? I am guessing there is a Starbucks near by.

[santamonica811]

Heh

[title54]

Being a law librarian finally pays off.

[Lawperson5000]

When I was in law school (which was long enough ago the library still had books), the law librarians were by far the most underutilized resource at the school. Their depth of knowledge was astounding.

[James Pollock]

I suspect I'm younger than you, and certainly my law school experience is, but my time on the law review involved going upstairs to the main floor of the library, finding the citation the author made in a physical volume, and making a photocopy of the page to prove that I'd checked the citation.

[Lawperson5000]

When I was in law school (which was long enough ago the library still had books), the law librarians were by far the most underutilized resource at the school. Their depth of knowledge was astounding.

[Jimmy the Dane]

Same thing with parallel citations. Always go for the second source because chances are is there is a line waiting for the first reporter (back when there were only limited copies of reporters and thus cases available).

[James Pollock]

Go to a school where you don't have people so competitive that they'll hide the volumes to keep other people from being able to read them.

[Glennn]

Well, the question was oldest "American" court decision. Mexico is "American". I'm not sure whether Puerto Rico is "American" nor all the other countries of South America. I am going to guess something from the Real Audencia, the Spanish Court administering justice in Mexico.

[James Pollock]

No, no, no. It has to be from REAL America, so it can't be older than the Reagan administration.