In the case of Benjamin D. Harris v. James D. Wall, the Supreme Court was asked to decide whether a contract between two parties could be enforced when one party had not received any consideration for their part in the agreement. The plaintiff argued that he had entered into an oral agreement with defendant whereby he would pay $500 for certain land owned by defendant and receive title to it upon payment of said sum; however, no money ever changed hands and plaintiff never received title to the property as agreed upon in their contract. The court held that since there was no consideration given by either party, there was no valid contract between them and thus dismissed plaintiff's claim against defendant on this basis.

In this case, the Supreme Court was asked to decide whether a state court had jurisdiction over an action brought by a non-resident of that state. The majority opinion held that the state court did have such jurisdiction and affirmed the judgment of the lower court. However, Justice McLean dissented from this decision on two grounds: first, he argued that under Article III of the Constitution, only federal courts could exercise original jurisdiction in cases involving citizens of different states; second, he contended that even if it were assumed for argument's sake that a state court could hear such cases between non-residents as well as residents, there was no evidence presented in this particular case to show any connection between Harris (the plaintiff) and Wall (the defendant). Therefore Justice McLean concluded that since there was no basis for exercising personal jurisdiction over Harris by either party or venue established connecting him with Wall or with Virginia where suit was brought against him – then Virginia’s courts lacked authority to try his cause.