List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 78

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This is a list of cases reported in volume 78 (11 Wall.) of United States Reports, decided by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1871, along with cases from 1867 and 1869.

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 (these are called "nominative reports").

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, Ludlow v. Ramsey is 78 U. S. (11 Wall.) 581 (1871). Wallace's Reports were the final nominative reports for the US Supreme Court; starting with volume 91, cases were identified simply as "(volume #) U. S. (page #) (year)".

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 (one chief justice and five associate justices). Since 1789 Congress has varied the size of the Court from six to seven, nine, ten, and back to nine justices (always including one chief justice). To prevent President Andrew Johnson from appointing any justices, a hostile Congress passed the Judicial Circuits Act of 1866, eliminating three of the 10 seats from the Supreme Court as they became vacant, and so potentially reducing the size of the court to seven justices. The vacancy caused by the death of Justice John Catron in 1865 had not been filled, so after Justice James Moore Wayne died in July 1867 there were eight justices left on the court at the start of the term when the cases in 78 U. S. (11 Wall.) were decided; however Justice Robert Cooper Grier resigned at the end of January 1870, temporarily reducing the Court to seven justices. Newly confirmed justices William Strong and Joseph P. Bradley joined the Court in March 1870, in the final weeks of the session. This brought the Court back to nine justices, the number set by the Judiciary Act of 1869.

In Virginia v. West Virginia, 78 U. S. (11 Wall.) 39 (1871), the Supreme Court held that when a governor has discretion in the conduct of an election, the legislature is bound by his actions and cannot undo the results based on fraud. The Court implicitly affirmed that the breakaway Virginia counties had received the necessary consent of both Virginia and the United States Congress to become a separate U. S. state, and explicitly held that the counties of Berkeley and Jefferson were part of the new State of West Virginia. Although the Court never directly ruled on the constitutionality of West Virginia's creation, decisions such as those in Virginia v. West Virginia led to a de facto recognition of the state which is now unassailable.

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 (from the US District Courts) 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 (i. e., in which cases could be filed directly with the Supreme Court without first having been heard by a lower federal or state court). 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

Case Name Page & year Opinion of the Court Concurring opinion(s) Dissenting opinion(s) Lower Court Disposition New England M. M. Insurance Company v. Dunham 1 (1871) Bradley none none C. C. D. Mass. certification Parmelee v. Lawrence 36 (1871) Nelson none none Ill. dismissed Virginia v. West Virginia 39 (1871) Miller none Davis original dismissed Morgan v. Thornhill 65 (1871) Clifford none none C. C. D. La. dismissed The Protector 82 (1871) Nelson none Swayne C. C. S. D. Ala. dismissed United States v. Tynen 88 (1871) Field none none D. Cal. certification City of New Albany v. Burke 96 (1871) Strong none none C. C. D. Ind. reversed Dows v. City of Chicago 108 (1871) Field none none C. C. N. D. Ill. affirmed Collector v. Day 113 (1871) Nelson none Bradley C. C. D. Mass. affirmed Western Transportation Company v. Downer 129 (1871) Field none none C. C. N. D. Ill. reversed Amy v. Des Moines County 136 (1871) Swayne none none C. C. D. Iowa reversed Smith v. Sac County 139 (1871) Miller none Clifford C. C. D. Iowa affirmed The Sapphire 164 (1871) Bradley none none C. C. D. Cal. reversed Susquehanna et al. Company v. Blatchford 172 (1871) Field none none C. C. W. D. Pa. reversed United States v. O'Keefe 178 (1871) Davis none none Ct. Cl. affirmed Leon v. Galceran 185 (1871) Clifford none none La. affirmed Generes v. Campbell 193 (1871) Swayne none none C. C. D. La. affirmed Case v. Terrell 199 (1871) Miller none none C. C. D. La. reversed Phoenix Insurance Company v. King's County 204 (1871) Bradley none none N. Y. Sup. Ct. dismissed Germania et al. Company v. Francis 210 (1871) Davis none none S. D. Miss. reversed May v. Le Claire 217 (1871) Swayne none none C. C. D. Iowa reversed The Fannie 238 (1871) Strong none none C. C. D. Md. affirmed Levy v. Stewart 244 (1871) Clifford none none C. C. D. La. affirmed Garnett v. United States 256 (1871) Swayne none none Sup. Ct. D. C. reversed McVeigh v. United States 259 (1871) Swayne none none C. C. D. Va. reversed Miller v. United States 268 (1871) Strong none Field; Davis C. C. E. D. Mich. affirmed Tyler v. Defrees 331 (1871) Miller none Field Sup. Ct. D. C. affirmed The Distilled Spirits 356 (1871) Bradley none none C. C. D. Mass. affirmed First National Bank v. Lanier 369 (1871) Davis none none C. C. D. Ind. affirmed Dewing v. Sears 379 (1871) Strong none none Mass. Super. Ct. reversed Rankin v. State 380 (1871) Bradley none none Tenn. dismissed Edmondson v. Bloomshire 382 (1871) Clifford none none C. C. S. D. Ohio affirmed Bank of Leavenworth v. Hunt's Assignee 391 (1871) Field none none C. C. D. Kan. affirmed Missouri v. Kentucky 395 (1871) Davis none none original dismissed The Montello 411 (1871) Field none none C. C. D. Wis. reversed Moncure v. Zunts 416 (1871) Miller none none C. C. D. La. reversed City of St. Louis v. Wiggins F. Company 423 (1871) Swayne none none C. C. D. Mo. affirmed United States v. Howell 432 (1871) Miller none none C. C. D. Cal. certification Home Insurance Company v. Weide 438 (1871) Davis none none C. C. D. Minn. reversed Meader v. Norton 442 (1871) Clifford none none C. C. D. Cal. affirmed Galveston, Houston and Henderson Railroad v. Cowdrey 459 (1871) Bradley none none C. C. E. D. Tex. affirmed Forsyth v. Woods 484 (1871) Strong none none C. C. D. Mo. affirmed Eureka Company v. Bailey Company 488 (1871) Miller none none C. C. D. Mass. affirmed Stewart v. Kahn 493 (1871) Swayne none none La. reversed United States v. Wiley 508 (1871) Strong none none C. C. D. Va. reversed Seymour v. Osborne 516 (1871) Clifford none none C. C. N. D. N. Y. reversed Halliday v. Hamilton 560 (1871) Davis none none C. C. S. D. Ill. affirmed Steinbach v. Stewart 566 (1871) Strong none none C. C. D. Cal. affirmed Ludlow v. Ramsey 581 (1871) Bradley none none C. C. E. D. Tenn. reversed Reed v. United States 591 (1871) Clifford none none Ct. Cl. reversed Dunphy v. Kleinsmith 610 (1871) Bradley none none Sup. Ct. Terr. Mont. reversed The Cherokee Tobacco 616 (1871) Swayne none Bradley W. D. Ark. affirmed Bank v. New Orleans and Carrollton Railroad Company 624 (1871) Strong none none C. C. D. La. affirmed United States v. Lynde 632 (1871) Bradley none Clifford D. La. affirmed United States v. Wright 648 (1871) Davis none none C. C. M. D. Tenn. reversed Mann v. Rock Island Bank 650 (1871) Miller none none C. C. D. Wis. affirmed Henderson's Tobacco 652 (1871) Strong none none C. C. D. Iowa reversed Cook v. Burnley I 659 (1867) Nelson none none E. D. Tex. affirmed Cook v. Burnley II 672 (1871) Clifford none none E. D. Tex. dismissed Whiteley v. Kirby 678 (1869) Nelson none none C. C. S. D. Ohio affirmed Legal Tender Cases 682 (1871) per curiam none none not indicated Act upheld