List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 41

This is a list of cases reported in volume 41 of United States Reports, decided by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1842.

Nominative reports

In 1874, the U.S. government created the United States Reports, and retroactively numbered older privately-published case reports as part of the new series. As a result, cases appearing in volumes 1–90 of U.S. Reports have dual citation forms; one for the volume number of U.S. Reports, and one for the volume number of the reports named for the relevant reporter of decisions.

Richard Peters, Jr.

Starting with the 26th volume of U.S. Reports, the Reporter of Decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States was Richard Peters, Jr. Peters was Reporter of Decisions from 1828 to 1843, covering volumes 26 through 41 of United States Reports which correspond to volumes 1 through 16 of his Peters's Reports. As such, the dual form of citation to, for example, Nixdorff v. Smith is 41 U.S. 132.

Justices of the Supreme Court at the time of 41 U.S. (16 Pet.)

The Supreme Court is established by Article III, Section 1 of the Constitution of the United States, which says: "The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court...". The size of the Court is not specified; the Constitution leaves it to Congress to set the number of justices. Under the Judiciary Act of 1789 Congress originally fixed the number of justices at six. Since 1789 Congress has varied the size of the Court from six to seven, nine, ten, and back to nine justices.
When the cases in 41 U.S. were decided the Court comprised these nine justices:

Portrait	Justice	Office	Home State	Succeeded	Date confirmed by the Senate	Tenure on Supreme Court
	Roger B. Taney	Chief Justice	Maryland	John Marshall		– October 12, 1864
	Joseph Story	Associate Justice	Massachusetts	William Cushing		– September 10, 1845
	Smith Thompson	Associate Justice	New York	Henry Brockholst Livingston		– December 18, 1843
	John McLean	Associate Justice	Ohio	Robert Trimble		– April 4, 1861
	Henry Baldwin	Associate Justice	Pennsylvania	Bushrod Washington		– April 21, 1844
	James Moore Wayne	Associate Justice	Georgia	William Johnson		– July 5, 1867
	John Catron	Associate Justice	Tennessee	newly created seat		– May 30, 1865
	John McKinley	Associate Justice	Alabama	newly created seat		– July 19, 1852
	Peter Vivian Daniel	Associate Justice	Virginia	Philip P. Barbour		– May 31, 1860

Notable Cases in 41 U.S. (16 Pet.)

''Swift v. Tyson''

In Swift v. Tyson, , the US Supreme Court determined that United States federal courts hearing diversity jurisdiction cases under the Judiciary Act of 1789 must apply statutory state laws when the state legislature in question had spoken on the relevant issue, but need not apply the a state's common law if the state's legislature had not spoken on the issue. The decision meant that the federal courts deciding matters not specifically addressed by a state legislature had the authority to develop a federal common law.

''Prigg v. Pennsylvania''

In Prigg v. Pennsylvania, , the US Supreme Court held that the federal Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 pre-empted a state law that made it a crime to take blacks out of the free state of Pennsylvania and into slavery elsewhere. Also, by refusing to take judicial notice of the problem of free blacks being kidnapped in free states and sold into slavery, Prigg implied that blacks were entitled to fewer procedural protections than were whites.

Citation style

Under the Judiciary Act of 1789 the federal court structure at the time comprised District Courts, which had general trial jurisdiction; Circuit Courts, which had mixed trial and appellate jurisdiction; and the United States Supreme Court, which had appellate jurisdiction over the federal District and Circuit courts—and for certain issues over state courts. The Supreme Court also had limited original jurisdiction. There were one or more federal District Courts and/or Circuit Courts in each state, territory, or other geographical region.
Bluebook citation style is used for case names, citations, and jurisdictions.

"C.C.D." = United States Circuit Court for the District of...
* e.g.,"C.C.D.N.J." = United States Circuit Court for the District of New Jersey
"D." = United States District Court for the District of...
* e.g.,"D. Mass." = United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts
"E." = Eastern; "M." = Middle; "N." = Northern; "S." = Southern; "W." = Western
* e.g.,"C.C.S.D.N.Y." = United States Circuit Court for the Southern District of New York
* e.g.,"M.D. Ala." = United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama
"Ct. Cl." = United States Court of Claims
The abbreviation of a state's name alone indicates the highest appellate court in that state's judiciary at the time.
* e.g.,"Pa." = Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
* e.g.,"Me." = Supreme Judicial Court of Maine
List of cases in 41 U.S. (16 Pet.)

Case Name	Page and year	Opinion of the Court	Concurring opinion	Dissenting opinion	Lower Court	Disposition
Swift v. Tyson		Story	Catron	none	C.C.S.D.N.Y.	certification
Watkins v. Holman's Lessee		McLean	none	none	C.C.S.D. Ala.	reversed
Beall v. Holman's Lessee		per curiam	none	none	C.C.N.D. Ala.	reversed
Long v. Palmer, Smith and Company		Thompson	none	none	C.C.S.D. Miss.	affirmed
Cocke ex rel. Commercial Bank v. Halsey		Daniel	none	none	C.C.S.D. Miss.	reversed
Keary v. Farmers' and Merchants' Bank of Memphis		Story	none	none	C.C.S.D. Miss.	reversed
Gordon v. Longest		McLean	none	none	Ky.	reversed
Tompkins v. Wheeler		Thompson	none	none	C.C.D. Ky.	affirmed
Brander v. Phillips and Company		McLean	none	none	C.C.S.D. Ala.	affirmed
Nixdorff v. Smith		McKinley	none	none	C.C.D.C.	reversed
Randolph v. Barrett		McKinley	none	none	C.C.S.D. Miss.	affirmed
United States v. Breward		Catron	none	none	Fla. Super. Ct.	certification
Fulton v. McAffee		Taney	none	none	Miss.	dismissed
United States v. Miranda		Wayne	none	none	Fla. Super. Ct.	reversed
United States v. Low		Catron	none	none	Fla. Super. Ct.	affirmed
Hyde and Gleises v. Booraem and Company		Story	none	none	C.C.E.D. La.	reversed
Hobson v. McArthur's Heirs		Thompson	none	none	C.C.D. Ohio	reversed
United States v. Hanson		Catron	none	none	Fla. Super. Ct.	reversed
United States v. Murphy		Story	none	none	C.C.S.D.N.Y.	certification
Hozey v. Buchanan		McLean	none	none	E.D. La.	reversed
Milnor v. Metz		Catron	none	none	C.C.D.C.	affirmed
United States v. Clarke's Heirs		Catron	none	none	Fla. Super. Ct.	affirmed
City of Mobile v. Eslava		McLean	Catron	none	Ala.	affirmed
City of Mobile v. Hallett		McLean	none	Catron	Ala.	affirmed
Kelsey v. Hobby		Taney	none	none	C.C.D.S.C.	affirmed
Armstrong v. Athens County		Catron	none	none	Ohio	affirmed
United States v. Eliason		Daniel	none	none	C.C.D.C.	reversed
Amis v. Smith		McKinley	none	none	N.D. Miss.	affirmed
Gibson v. Chew		Wayne	none	none	C.C.S.D. Miss.	reversed
Bradstreet v. Potter		Wayne	none	none	C.C.N.D.N.Y.	reversed
Roach v. Hulings		Daniel	none	none	C.C.D.C.	affirmed
Fresh v. Gilson		Daniel	none	none	C.C.D.C.	reversed
Prouty v. Ruggles		Taney	none	none	C.C.D. Mass.	affirmed
Wood v. United States		Story	none	none	C.C.D. Md.	affirmed
Martin v. Waddell's Lessee		Taney	none	Thompson	C.C.D.N.J.	reversed
Dobbins v. Erie County		Wayne	none	none	Pa.	reversed
Parish v. Ellis		Taney	none	none	Ct. App. Terr. Fla.	dismissed
Harpending v. Reformed Protestant Church of New York		Catron	none	none	C.C.S.D.N.Y.	affirmed
Carpenter v. Providence Washington Insurance Company		Story	none	none	C.C.D.R.I.	affirmed
Carver v. Hyde		Taney	none	none	C.C.D. Mass.	affirmed
Todd v. Daniel		Story	none	none	C.C.D. Me.	multiple
Mills v. Brown		Taney	none	none	Ill.	dismissed
Mauran v. Bullus		McLean	none	none	C.C.D.R.I.	affirmed
Prigg v. Pennsylvania		Story	Taney; Thompson; Wayne; Daniel	McLean	Pa.	reversed