The Elgee Cotton Cases
Supreme Court of the United States
Appeals from the Court of Claims, in which court the representatives of one Elgee claimed the net proceeds in the Treasury of the United States of the sale of certain cotton under what is known as the Captured and Abandoned Property Act; the right of the said Elgee being disputed by a firm of Woodruff & Co., and also by a certain Mrs. Nutt, executrix of one Haller Nutt, M.D., both of which parties claimed adversely to Elgee and to one another; the United States at the same…
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Appeals from the Court of Claims, in which court the representatives of one Elgee claimed the net proceeds in the Treasury of the United States of the sale of certain cotton under what is known as the Captured and Abandoned Property Act; the right of the said Elgee being disputed by a firm of Woodruff & Co., and also by a certain Mrs. Nutt, executrix of one Haller Nutt, M.D., both of which parties claimed adversely to Elgee and to one another; the United States at the same time denying the rights of all of them, or, at least, denying them in the way in which the parties assei’ted them. The…
1Opinion of the CourtJustice Strong
These cases have been elaborately and very ably argued, touching both the legality and the construction of the contracts under which the different parties claim. But in the view which we take of the merits of the controversy it is unnecessary to do more than to examine the contracts themselves, and to determine what is their true meaning.
The fundamental question, in all the cases, is whether Elgee parted with the ownership by either of the contracts found by the Court of Claims to have been made by him, or for him by his agent, Gordon. It is the owner alone who has any standing in the Court…
2Cited by67 opinions
- Hatch v. Oil Co.Supreme Court of the United States · 1879
- Blackwood v. Cutting Packing Co.California Supreme Court · 1888
- J. S. Potts Drug Co. v. BenedictCalifornia Supreme Court · 1909
- James Smith Woolen Machine Co. v. HoldenSupreme Court of Vermont · 1901
- Ellis & Meyers Lumber Co. v. HubbardSupreme Court of Virginia · 1918
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