In the case of Lessee of Angelica Croghan et al. v. John Nelson, the Supreme Court was asked to decide whether a deed from an Indian tribe to a private individual could be enforced in court. The plaintiff argued that they had purchased land from an Indian tribe and were entitled to possession under their contract with the Indians; however, defendant John Nelson claimed title by virtue of another purchase made at a later date from the same tribe. The Court held that while it is true that treaties between Indians and non-Indians are not enforceable in courts due to lack of jurisdiction over tribal matters, this particular transaction was valid because it involved only one party - namely, individuals who were subject to state law - rather than two parties (the United States government and an Indian nation). Furthermore, since there was no evidence presented indicating fraud or coercion on either side during negotiations for sale or transfer of property rights between these individuals, then both contracts should be considered valid and binding upon all parties involved.

In this case, the Supreme Court was asked to decide whether a certain land grant from Virginia in 1780 could be enforced against subsequent purchasers of the property. The majority opinion held that it could not because the original grantee had failed to take possession and make improvements on the land within two years as required by Virginia law. Justice McLean dissented, arguing that although there were some technical defects in how the original grant was executed, they should not prevent its enforcement since all parties involved acted in good faith and relied upon it for many years without any objections being raised until now. He further argued that if such technicalities were allowed to invalidate grants like these then much injustice would result since innocent third-party purchasers would suffer losses due to no fault of their own.