List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 87

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This is a list of cases reported in volume 87 (20 Wall.) of United States Reports, decided by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1874 and 1875.

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, Rubber Tip Pencil Co. v. Howard is 87 U. S. (20 Wall.) 498 (1874). 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). When the cases in 87 U. S. (20 Wall.) were decided the Court comprised the following nine members:

Portrait Justice Office Home State Succeeded Date confirmed by the Senate(Vote) Tenure on Supreme Court Morrison Waite Chief Justice Ohio Salmon P. Chase January 21, 1874(63–0) March 4, 1874–March 23, 1888(Died) Nathan Clifford Associate Justice Maine Benjamin Robbins Curtis January 12, 1858(26–23) January 21, 1858–July 25, 1881(Died) Noah Haynes Swayne Associate Justice Ohio John McLean January 24, 1862(38–1) January 27, 1862–January 24, 1881(Retired) Samuel Freeman Miller Associate Justice Iowa Peter Vivian Daniel July 16, 1862(Acclamation) July 21, 1862–October 13, 1890(Died) David Davis Associate Justice Illinois John Archibald Campbell December 8, 1862(Acclamation) December 10, 1862–March 4, 1877(Resigned) Stephen Johnson Field Associate Justice California newly created seat March 10, 1863(Acclamation)May 10, 1863–December 1, 1897(Retired) William Strong Associate Justice Pennsylvania Robert Cooper Grier February 18, 1870(No vote recorded) March 14, 1870–December 14, 1880(Retired) Joseph P. Bradley Associate Justice New Jersey newly created seat March 21, 1870(46–9) March 23, 1870–January 22, 1892(Died) Ward Hunt Associate Justice New York Samuel Nelson December 11, 1872(Acclamation) January 9, 1873–January 27, 1882(Retired)

The Supreme Court in Murdock v. City of Memphis, 87 U. S. (20 Wall.) 590 (1875), established the principle that interpretation of state law is the province of state courts, and that the state supreme courts, rather than the federal courts, have final jurisdiction in this area.

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 and year Opinion of the Court Concurring opinion(s) Dissenting opinion(s) Lower Court Disposition Habich v. Folger 1 (1874) Hunt none none Mass. affirmed Creighton v. Kerr 8 (1874) Hunt none none Sup. Ct. Terr. Colo. affirmed McQuiddy v. Ware 14 (1874) Davis none none C. C. E. D. Mo. affirmed Humaston v. American Telegraph Company 20 (1874) Davis none none C. C. S. D. N. Y. affirmed Kehr v. Smith 31 (1874) Davis none none C. C. E. D. Mo. affirmed Pacific Railroad Company v. Maguire 36 (1874) Hunt Waite Clifford Mo. reversed North Missouri Railroad Company v. Maguire 46 (1874) Clifford none none Mo. affirmed Oregon Steam Navigation Company v. Winsor 64 (1874) Bradley none none Sup. Ct. Terr. Wash. reversed National Bank v. Texas 72 (1874) Miller Swayne none Sup. Ct. D. C. reversed Confiscation Cases 92 (1874) Strong none Clifford; Field C. C. D. La. reversed Claims of Marcuard 114 (1874) Strong none none C. C. D. La. affirmed Conrad's Lots 115 (1874) Strong none none C. C. D. La. reversed Knapp v. Bennington and Rutland Railroad Company 117 (1874) Davis none none C. C. D. Vt. reversed Burton v. Driggs 125 (1874) Swayne none none C. C. D. Vt. affirmed Tioga Railroad v. Blossburg and Corning Railroad 137 (1874) Bradley Hunt Miller C. C. N. D. N. Y. affirmed Simpson v. Greeley 152 (1874) Clifford none none Kan. dismissed Merchants' Mutual Insurance Company v. Baring Brothers and Company 159 (1874) Clifford none none C. C. D. La. affirmed Roach v. Summers 165 (1874) Strong none none C. C. S. D. Miss. affirmed Bank v. Cooper 171 (1874) Strong none none C. C. N. D. N. Y. affirmed Twenty Per Cent Cases 179 (1874) Clifford none Swayne Ct. Cl. multiple Pahlman v. Raster 189 (1874) Strong none none C. C. N. D. Ill. affirmed The Lottawanna 201 (1874) Clifford none none C. C. D. La. reversed Cornett v. Williams 226 (1874) Swayne none none C. C. W. D. Tex. affirmed United States v. Herron 251 (1874) Clifford none none C. C. D. La. reversed McPhaul v. Lapsley 264 (1874) Swayne none none C. C. W. D. Tex. affirmed City of Memphis v. Brown 289 (1874) Hunt Field; Bradley none C. C. W. D. Tenn. reversed Stockdale v. Atlantic Insurance Company 323 (1874) Miller none Strong C. C. D. La. reversed Washing Machine Company v. Providence Tool Company 342 (1874) Strong none none C. C. D. R. I. affirmed Hailes v. Van Wormer 353 (1874) Strong none none C. C. N. D. N. Y. affirmed Ferris v. Higley 375 (1874) Miller none none Sup. Ct. Terr. Utah affirmed The Steamboat Wheeler 385 (1874) Waite none none C. C. D. Mass. affirmed City of New Orleans v. Steamship Company 387 (1874) Swayne Hunt Field C. C. D. La. affirmed Lyon v. Pollard 403 (1874) Miller none none Sup. Ct. D. C. reversed Avery v. Hackley 407 (1874) Davis none none C. C. W. D. Mich. affirmed Mays v. Fritton 414 (1874) Hunt none none Pa. affirmed The Belle of the Sea 421 (1874) Strong none none C. C. E. D. Pa. affirmed The Montello 430 (1874) Davis none none C. C. E. D. Wis. reversed Home Insurance Company v. Morse 445 (1874) Hunt none Waite Wis. reversed Sprott v. United States 459 (1874) Miller Clifford; Davis Field Ct. Cl. affirmed Titus v. United States 475 (1874) Waite none none C. C. S. D. Ga. affirmed Boley v. Griswold 486 (1874) Waite none none Sup. Ct. Terr. Mont. affirmed Hearne v. Marine Insurance Company 488 (1874) Swayne none none C. C. D. Mass. affirmed Equitable Insurance Company v. Hearne 494 (1874) Swayne none none C. C. M. D. Mass. affirmed Rubber Tip Pencil Company v. Howard 498 (1874) Waite none none C. C. S. D. N. Y. affirmed Atchison v. Peterson 507 (1874) Field none none Sup. Ct. Terr. Mont. affirmed United States v. Gill 517 (1875) Waite none none Ct. Cl. reversed Pollard v. Bailey 520 (1874) Waite none none M. D. Ala. reversed Union Packet Company v. Clough 528 (1874) Strong none none C. C. E. D. Wis. reversed United States Express Company v. Ware 543 (1875) Waite none none C. C. D. Neb. affirmed Ambler v. Whipple 546 (1874) Miller none none Sup. Ct. D. C. reversed Franklin Insurance Company v. Colt 560 (1875) Field none none C. C. D. Conn. affirmed Gillette v. Bullard 571 (1874) Waite none none Sup. Ct. Terr. Mont. affirmed Longstreth v. Pennock 575 (1875) Swayne none none C. C. D. Pa. affirmed Cannon v. City of New Orleans 577 (1874) Miller none none La. reversed Clark v. City of Iowa City 583 (1875) Field none Clifford C. C. D. Iowa affirmed Murdock v. Memphis 590 (1875) Miller none Clifford; Bradley Tenn. affirmed Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company v. Maryland 643 (1875) Miller none none Md. dismissal denied Mathews v. McStea 646 (1875) Miller none none N. Y. Ct. Com. Pl. dismissal denied Cadle v. Baker 650 (1875) Waite none none M. D. Ala. reversed Treat v. Jemison 652 (1875) Waite none none C. C. D. Cal. affirmed Parcels v. Johnson 653 (1874) Waite none none Mo. dismissed Citizens' Savings and Loan Association v. City of Topeka 655 (1875) Miller none Clifford C. C. D. Kan. affirmed Basey v. Gallagher 670 (1875) Field none none Sup. Ct. Terr. Mont. affirmed