Handwritten Opinion of Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story in Federal Circuit Case Involving Fraudulent Transfer of Property
“It is plain then, upon the unshaken doctrine of the authorities that the plea is bad.”
Josiah Wood Jr. sued Samuel H. Mann and others to set aside a conveyance made by Wood to John R. Adams, another defendant, because Wood argued that the conveyance had been obtained by fraud and imposition. Elisha Fuller, another defendant, pleaded that he had purchased the property legally from Mann with no knowledge of any fraud, that he had paid part of the purchase money, and that he had secured the rest by a mortgage.
In his decision for the U.S. Circuit Court, U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Joseph Story ruled for Wood and rejected Fuller’s plea as insufficient, forcing him to enter another plea in the original case then pending.
JOSEPH STORY, Autograph Document, Portion of Opinion in Wood v. Mann et al., U.S. Circuit Court for the First Circuit, Boston, October Term, 1833. 2 pp., 7.5? x 8.5?. Cut to top margin removed several lines of text between recto and verso

cut on left edge affects ends of lines on verso

some toning on one edge

very good. These two handwritten pages represent approximately 30 percent of Story’s decision.
Excerpts
“Resort, then, is now had to a court of equity not to enforce a legal title, but to obtain a declaration that the original deed was fraudulently obtained, & of course to procure from the defendant, Fuller, a re-conveyance, if he purchased with notice, as the bill asserts in general terms that he did.”
“But it is very clear, that the plea furnishes no bar to the bill.... It is plain, then, upon the unshaken doctrine of the authorities that the plea is bad.”
Joseph Story (1779-1845) was born in Marblehead, Massachusetts, and graduated from Harvard College in 1798. He read law in Marblehead and gained admission to the bar in 1801. He was also a poet and published “The Power of Solitude” in 1804, one of the first long poems by an American. He served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1805 to 1808, then represented Massachusetts in the U.S. House of Representatives for four months in 1808-1809. When he returned to Massachusetts, he was re-elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives, where he became speaker in 1811. In November 1811, President James Madison nominated him to the U.S. Supreme Court, the youngest person ever nominated to the office. The Senate confirmed his nomination, and Story served as an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1812 until his death. Story played a pivotal role in the Court’s asserting its Constitutional authority over state courts and state legislation. A strong ally of Chief Justice John Marshall, Story wrote more opinions than any other justice except Marshall between 1812 and 1832. After Marshall’s death and replacement by Roger B. Taney, Story more often was part of a dissenting minority. Story was also one of the most successful American authors of the first half of the nineteenth-century, with his legal treatises and commentaries earning him more than his salary on the Supreme Court.
From the famous Supreme Court collection of Scott Petersen.
This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.
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