Mary Bein and Richard Bein, her husband, G. S. Hawkins and James M'Masters (collectively referred to as the Plaintiffs) brought a case against Mary Heath (the Defendant). The Plaintiffs alleged that they were entitled to certain lands in Illinois which had been granted by Congress under an act of 1820. They argued that their title was superior to any claim made by the Defendant who held a patent from the State of Illinois for part of said land. The Supreme Court found in favor of the Defendant on grounds that she had acquired valid title through purchase from one who claimed it under an earlier grant from Virginia prior to its cession to the United States government; thus making her title paramount over any subsequent grants issued by Congress or other states after such cession occurred.

In this case, the Supreme Court was asked to decide whether a deed of land that had been executed by Mary Heath in 1837 was valid. The plaintiffs argued that the deed should be declared invalid because it did not comply with certain legal requirements and therefore could not be enforced. However, the majority opinion held that although there were some technical deficiencies in the execution of the deed, these defects did not render it void or unenforceable. The dissenting opinion disagreed with this conclusion and argued that since there were several material irregularities in how the deed was executed, it should have been declared void and thus unenforceable. In particular, they noted that no consideration had been paid for transferring ownership of the property from Mary Heath to her husband Richard Bein; furthermore, neither party had signed or acknowledged their signatures on either side of an attested copy as required by law at time when such deeds were made. As a result, they concluded that due to these irregularities which rendered its execution incomplete and defective under existing laws at time when such deeds are made -the court ought to declare said instrument null & void & consequently incapable of conveying any title whatever