List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 81

This is a list of cases reported in volume 81 of United States Reports, decided by the Supreme Court of [the United States] in 1872, along with a case from 1870 and a case from 1871.

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.

John William Wallace

Starting with the 66th volume of U.S. Reports, the Reporter of Decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States was John William Wallace. Wallace was Reporter of Decisions from 1863 to 1874, covering volumes 68 through 90 of United States Reports which correspond to volumes 1 through 23 of his Wallace's Reports. As such, the dual form of citation to, for example, Christmas v. Russell is 81 U.S. 69.
Wallace's Reports were the final nominative reports for the US Supreme Court; starting with volume 91, cases were identified simply as " U.S. ".

Justices of the Supreme Court at the time of 81 U.S. (14 Wall.)

The Supreme Court is established by Article Three of [the United States Constitution|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 81 U.S. were decided the Court comprised these nine members:

Justices during at least part of the Court session reported in 81 U.S. (14 Wall.)

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 81 U.S. (14 Wall.)

Case Name	Page & year	Opinion of the Court	Concurring opinion	Dissenting opinion	Lower Court	Disposition
United States v. Crusell		Chase	none	Davis	Ct. Cl.	affirmed
Cockroft v. Vose		Miller	none	none	N.Y. Sup. Ct.	dismissed
Bank of W. Tenn. v. Citizens' Bank		Swayne	none	none	La.	dismissed
Palmer v. Marston		Swayne	none	none	La.	dismissed
Sevier v. Haskell		Swayne	none	none	Ark.	dismissed
Steines v. Franklin Cnty.		Clifford	none	none	Mo.	dismissed
Kennebec & P.R.R. v. Portland & K.R.R.		Miller	none	none	Me.	dismissed
Bartemeyer v. Iowa		Miller	none	Swayne	Iowa	dismissed
Ward v. United States		Miller	none	Bradley	C.C.D. Mich.	reversed
Henderson's D.S.		Clifford	none	Field	C.C.E.D. Mo.	reversed
Christmas v. Russell		Swayne	none	none	C.C.S.D. Miss.	reversed
Hurley v. Street		Chase	none	none	Iowa	dismissed
Traders' Nat'l Bank v. Campbell		Miller	none	none	C.C.N.D. Ill.	affirmed
The Thames		Strong	none	none	C.C.S.D.N.Y.	affirmed
Mahan v. United States		Miller	none	none	Ct. Cl.	remand denied
Foulke v. Zimmerman		Miller	none	none	C.C.D. La.	affirmed
The Bridgeport		Bradley	none	none	C.C.E.D.N.Y.	affirmed
Armstrong v. Morrill		Clifford	none	Strong	D.W. Va.	affirmed
Ex parte Newman		Clifford	none	none	C.C.E.D.N.Y.	mandamus denied
The Scotia		Strong	none	none	C.C.S.D.N.Y.	affirmed
The Java		Bradley	none	none	C.C.D. Mass.	reversed
The Merrimac		Clifford	none	none	C.C.D. La.	affirmed
The Mabey		Clifford	none	none	C.C.E.D.N.Y.	affirmed
Caperton v. Bowyer		Clifford	none	none	W. Va.	dismissed
Caperton v. Ballard		Davis	none	none	W. Va.	dismissed
Gibson v. Warden		Swayne	none	none	C.C.S.D. Ohio	reversed
Hook v. Payne		Miller	none	none	C.C.D. Mo.	multiple
The Vaughan		Swayne	none	Chase	C.C.D.N.Y.	affirmed
The Cayuga		Clifford	none	none	C.C.D.N.Y.	affirmed
Easley v. Kellom		Bradley	none	none	C.C.D. Neb.	affirmed
City of Lexington v. Butler		Clifford	none	none	C.C.D. Ky.	affirmed
Bigler v. Waller		Strong	none	none	C.C.D. Va.	reversed
Dent v. Emmeger		Swayne	none	none	C.C.D. Mo.	affirmed
French v. Shoemaker		Clifford	none	none	C.C.D. Va.	affirmed
The Laura		Miller	none	none	C.C.D. La.	affirmed
The Continental		Clifford	none	none	C.C.D. Conn.	reversed
Pugh v. McCormick		Clifford	none	none	La.	affirmed
Insurance Cos. v. Weides		Strong	none	none	C.C.D. Minn.	affirmed
First Nat'l Bank v. Pahquioque Bank		Clifford	none	none	Conn.	affirmed
O'Dowd v. Russell		Chase	none	none	Ga.	dismissal denied
The Steamer Webb		Strong	none	none	C.C.S.D.N.Y.	affirmed
Smith v. Mason's Assignee		Clifford	none	none	Sup. Ct. D.C.	reversed
Mowry v. Whitney		Miller	none	none	C.C.E.D. Pa.	affirmed
Schuylkill & D.I. Co. v. Munson		Clifford	none	none	C.C.E.D. Pa.	affirmed
Nicolson P. Co. v. Jenkins		Davis	none	none	C.C.D. Cal.	reversed
United States v. Ballard		Chase	none	none	C.C.N.D. Ohio	affirmed
Black v. Curran		Davis	none	none	C.C.D. Ill.	affirmed
Dolton v. Cain		Davis	none	none	C.C.S.D. Ill.	affirmed
Cross v. United States		Davis	none	none	Ct. Cl.	reversed
Dirst v. Morris		Bradley	none	none	C.C.N.D. Ill.	affirmed
Collins v. Riggs		Bradley	none	none	C.C.N.D. Ill.	affirmed
United States v. Powell		Clifford	none	none	C.C.M.D. Tenn.	reversed
Phoenix Ins. Co. v. Hamilton		Bradley	none	none	C.C.N.D. Ohio	affirmed
Gorham Co. v. White		Strong	none	none	C.C.S.D.N.Y.	reversed
Morgan v. United States		Davis	none	none	Ct. Cl.	affirmed
United States v. Justice		Davis	none	none	Ct. Cl.	reversed
United States v. Hunt		Chase	none	none	Ct. Cl.	reversed
Turner v. Smith		Miller	none	none	Va.	reversed
Gregg v. Moss		Miller	none	none	C.C.N.D. Ill.	affirmed
Philpot v. Gruninger		Strong	none	none	C.C.N.D. Ill.	affirmed
The Delaware		Clifford	none	none	C.C.D. Cal.	affirmed
Leary v. United States		Field	none	none	Ct. Cl.	affirmed
Erskine v. Hohnbach		Field	none	none	C.C.E.D. Wis.	affirmed
Mowry v. Whitney		Strong	none	none	C.C.S.D. Ohio	reversed
The Key City		Miller	none	none	C.C.E.D. Wis.	reversed
Delmas v. Merchants' Ins. Co.		Miller	none	none	La.	reversed
New Bedford et al. Co. v. United States		Strong	none	none	Ct. Cl.	affirmed
Willard v. Presbury		Nelson	none	none	Sup. Ct. D.C.	reversed