Trustees of Dartmouth College v. Woodward

U.S. SUPREME COURT

Trustees of Dartmouth College v. Woodward

17 U.S. 518

DUVALL, J., Dissenting Opinion

DUVALL, Justice, dissented.

Upon the suggestion of the plaintiff's counsel that the defendant had died since the last term, the Court ordered the judgment to be entered nunc pro tunc as of that term, as follows:

JUDGMENT. -- This cause came on to be heard on the transcript of the record, and was argued by counsel. And thereupon, all and singular the premises being seen, and by the Court now here fully understood, and mature deliberation being thereupon had, [p*715] it appears to this Court that the said acts of the Legislature of New Hampshire of the 27th of June and of the 18th and 26th of December, Anno Domini 1816, in the record mentioned, are repugnant to the Constitution of the United States, and so not valid, and therefore that the said Superior Court of Judicature of the State of New Hampshire erred in rendering judgment on the said special verdict in favor of the said plaintiffs, and that the said Court ought to have rendered judgment thereon that the said Trustees recover against the said Woodward the amount of damages found and assessed in and by the verdict aforesaid, viz., the sum of $20,000. Whereupon, it is considered, ordered and adjudged by this Court now here that the aforesaid judgment of the said Superior Court of judicature of the State of New Hampshire be, and the same hereby is, reversed and annulled. And this Court proceeding to render such judgment in the premises as the said Superior Court of judicature ought to have rendered, it is further considered by this Court now here that the said Trustees of Dartmouth College do recover against the said William Woodward the aforesaid sum of $20,000, with costs of suit, and it is by this Court now here further ordered that a special mandate do go from this Court to the said Superior Court of Judicature to carry this judgment into execution.