In the case of Richard Raynal Keene vs. Warren Whitaker, Laura Wade, George Dougherty, Francis Marks and C. Cunningham, Keene brought a suit against the defendants for trespass on his land in Kentucky. The lower court found in favor of the defendants based on their claim that they had purchased a portion of the property from another party before it was sold to Keene by an executor's sale. On appeal to the Supreme Court however, Justice McLean reversed this decision finding that since there was no evidence presented at trial showing any actual purchase or transfer of title between those parties prior to its sale by executor’s deed to Keene; therefore he held that such alleged purchase could not be used as defense against him and thus rendered judgment for plaintiff with costs.

In the case of Richard Raynal Keene vs. Warren Whitaker, Laura Wade, George Dougherty, Francis Marks and C. Cunningham, the dissenting opinion was that a contract between two parties should not be voided due to an alleged mistake in one party's understanding of its terms if there is no evidence that the other party had knowledge or reason to know about this misunderstanding. The majority opinion held that because Mr. Keene had made a mistake when entering into his contract with Messrs Whitaker et al., it could be voided on grounds of mutual mistake; however Justice McLean argued against this decision by stating that such action would set a dangerous precedent for contracts in general as any agreement could potentially be invalidated based on one person’s misapprehension without proof from either side regarding their intentions at the time they entered into said agreement. He further stated that while mistakes can certainly occur during negotiations and agreements between two parties, these errors do not necessarily render them void unless both sides are aware of them beforehand or have reasonable cause to believe so afterwards