In the Gumaer v. Colorado Oil Company case of 1893, the U.S Supreme Court ruled on a dispute involving land ownership and oil rights. The plaintiff, Gumaer, claimed that he had purchased certain lands in Kansas from the Atchison & Pike's Peak Railroad Company before it was legally capable of selling them. He argued that his purchase should still be recognized as valid because he made improvements to these lands under good faith belief that they were his property. However, when oil was discovered on this land years later by Colorado Oil Company who bought it from another party claiming title through a patent issued by United States government after railroad company received its charter but before it sold to Gumaer; conflict arose over who held rightful claim to profits derived from this discovery. The court decided in favor of Colorado Oil Company stating that even though Gumaer may have acted in good faith while improving these lands; at time of sale railroad company did not hold legal capacity to sell them hence making any subsequent sales void ab initio (from beginning). Therefore, despite having invested resources into developing these properties for many years without knowledge about their true ownership status - all benefits accrued thereon rightfully belonged to current owner i.e., Colorado Oil Company.

In the dissenting opinion for Gumaer v. Colorado Oil Company, it was argued that the majority's decision failed to properly consider and apply principles of equity. The dissent contended that Mr. Gumaer had acted in good faith when he purchased his land, unaware of any prior claims or liens against it by the Colorado Oil Company. It was further pointed out that there were no public records indicating such a claim at the time of purchase, making it impossible for him to have known about them beforehand. Therefore, according to this view, Mr.Gumaer should not be penalized due to lack of knowledge which wasn't his fault but rather because proper procedures weren't followed by others before him in recording their interests on this property publicly as required by law.