In Ex Parte Martha Bradstreet, the Supreme Court of the United States heard a case involving Martha Bradstreet, who was seeking to evict Apollos Cooper and other tenants from her property. The tenants had been living on her land for over twenty years without paying rent or obtaining permission from Ms. Bradstreet. She argued that she should be allowed to evict them because they were in violation of their lease agreement by not paying rent and failing to obtain consent before occupying the premises. The court ultimately sided with Ms. Bradstreet, ruling that she had a right to reclaim possession of her property since it was being used unlawfully by the tenants without any compensation for its use or occupancy rights granted by her as landlord. Furthermore, they found that even though there may have been an implied tenancy between Ms. Bradstreet and Mr Cooper due to his long-term occupation of the land, this did not give him any legal rights beyond those which he would have if he were simply trespassing on someone else's property; thus making eviction permissible under law at this time

In the dissenting opinion of this case, Justice Story argued that Martha Bradstreet had no legal right to evict Apollos Cooper and his tenants from her property. He reasoned that since she was not a party to the original lease agreement between her father and Cooper, she could not be held liable for any breach of contract or damages resulting from it. Furthermore, he noted that even if there were grounds for eviction due to non-payment of rent or other breaches in the terms of the lease agreement, those issues should have been addressed by an action brought against Cooper directly rather than through an eviction proceeding initiated by Bradstreet. In conclusion, Justice Story concluded that while Bradstreet may have had some moral claim on the property in question due to its inheritance from her father's estate, such claims did not give rise to any legal rights which would entitle her to evict Cooper and his tenants without first bringing suit against him directly.