Libby v. Clark is a United States Supreme Court case that was decided in 1885. The case involved a dispute between two parties over the ownership of a piece of land in the state of Maine. The plaintiff, Libby, claimed that he had purchased the land from the defendant, Clark, in 1876. Clark, however, argued that he had never sold the land to Libby and that he still owned it. The Supreme Court ultimately sided with Libby, ruling that he had indeed purchased the land from Clark in 1876. The Court found that Clark had made a verbal agreement to sell the land to Libby and that Libby had paid the agreed-upon price. The Court also found that Libby had taken possession of the land and had made improvements to it, which further supported his claim of ownership. The Court's decision in Libby v. Clark established that verbal agreements are legally binding and that a party who has taken possession of land and made improvements to it has a valid claim of ownership. This ruling has been cited in numerous subsequent cases and has become an important precedent in property law.

Justice Field delivered the dissenting opinion in Libby v. Clark, arguing that the majority's decision was contrary to both precedent and sound legal reasoning. He argued that a court of equity should not be bound by technical rules when it comes to granting relief for an injury caused by fraud or mistake. In this case, he believed that the plaintiff had been wrongfully deprived of his property due to a fraudulent misrepresentation made by the defendant, and thus deserved equitable relief from a court of equity regardless of any technicalities regarding jurisdiction or other procedural matters. Furthermore, Justice Field noted that even if there were some jurisdictional issues at play here, they could have easily been remedied without denying justice to either party involved in this dispute. As such, he concluded that the majority's ruling was unjustified and should be reversed on appeal.