The U.S. Supreme Court case Old Jordan Mining and Milling Co. v. Societe Anonyme des Mines in 1896 revolved around a dispute over mining property rights in Utah between the American company, Old Jordan Mining and Milling Co., and the French corporation, Societe Anonyme des Mines d'Argent de Bingham Canyon et Camp Floyd (Societe). The French company claimed that they had purchased valid titles to certain mines from another party who had obtained them through an earlier court decree against Old Jordan's predecessor-in-interest. However, Old Jordan argued that this previous decree was invalid because it did not properly describe the properties involved or provide adequate notice of proceedings to their predecessor-in-interest. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Old Jordan, holding that due process requires proper description of property subject to judicial sale as well as sufficient notice to interested parties about such proceedings. Therefore, since these requirements were not met in the original suit leading up to the contested sale of mine titles, those sales were deemed void for lack of jurisdiction by courts overseeing them at that time.

In the dissenting opinion for Old Jordan Mining and Milling Co. v. Societe Anonyme Des Mines, it was argued that the majority's decision to uphold a lower court ruling in favor of Societe Anonyme des Mines was incorrect due to an improper interpretation of Utah law regarding mining claims. The dissent contended that under Utah law, a claimant must perform annual labor on each individual claim they own; simply performing work on one claim does not suffice for all others owned by the same party within a contiguous area. Therefore, since Societe had failed to do so, their claims should have been considered abandoned and open for relocation by other parties such as Old Jordan Mining and Milling Co., who did comply with these requirements. Furthermore, it was argued that even if this were not the case under state law, federal laws governing mineral lands would still require separate annual labor on each individual mining claim.