In the case of Lanahan v. Sears, the United States Supreme Court was asked to decide whether a contract between two parties was valid and enforceable. The plaintiff, Lanahan, had entered into a contract with the defendant, Sears, to purchase a piece of property. Lanahan paid the purchase price in full, but Sears refused to transfer the deed to the property. Lanahan then sued Sears for breach of contract. The Supreme Court held that the contract between Lanahan and Sears was valid and enforceable. The Court found that the contract was supported by consideration, meaning that both parties had exchanged something of value. The Court also found that the contract was not void for lack of mutuality, meaning that both parties had agreed to the same terms. Finally, the Court held that the contract was not void for lack of capacity, meaning that both parties had the legal capacity to enter into the contract. Based on these findings, the Supreme Court held that Lanahan was entitled to the deed to the property and that Sears was liable for breach of contract. The Court ordered Sears to transfer the deed to Lanahan.

Justice Field delivered the dissenting opinion in Lanahan v. Sears, arguing that the majority's decision was inconsistent with prior Supreme Court precedent and should be overturned. He argued that a contract between two parties can only be enforced if it is valid under state law, which requires consideration to exist for an agreement to be binding. In this case, there was no evidence of consideration exchanged by either party; thus, Justice Field concluded that the contract could not stand as written and must therefore fail. Furthermore, he noted that even if some form of consideration had been present at one point in time (such as when Lanahan originally purchased his goods from Sears), such considerations would have been extinguished once they were returned or replaced by other items without any additional payment being made on behalf of Lanahan. As such, Justice Field concluded that since there was no valid contractual relationship between the parties due to lack of consideration existing at any given time during their dealings with each other, then neither party could enforce its rights against one another through legal action in court - regardless of whether those rights were based upon express or implied contracts formed between them previously