Moses Groves and James Graham brought a case against Robert Slaughter to the Supreme Court. The two plaintiffs argued that they had purchased land from John Brown in 1835, but Slaughter claimed he owned it due to an earlier purchase from Brown in 1831. The Supreme Court ruled that the title of ownership belonged to Groves and Graham because their deed was recorded first with the local county clerk's office, making them legally responsible for the property. Furthermore, even though Slaughter had paid money for his deed before Groves and Graham did theirs, this payment could not be considered valid since it was never officially recorded or acknowledged by any court of law. This ruling established precedence for future cases regarding deeds being registered as proof of legal ownership over unregistered ones regardless of when payments were made.

In the dissenting opinion of Moses Groves and James Graham v. Robert Slaughter, Justice McLean argued that the plaintiffs had no right to sue for damages due to a breach of contract as they were not parties to it. The original agreement was between two other individuals, who later assigned their rights under the contract to Groves and Graham. However, according to McLean this assignment did not give them any legal standing in court because it was made without consideration or mutuality of obligation; meaning there was nothing given in exchange for assigning those rights over nor did both sides agree on what each would do in return. Therefore, he concluded that since they had no legal basis upon which they could bring suit against Slaughter then his motion should be granted and the case dismissed from court.