McCormick v. Graham's Administrator was a Supreme Court case that was decided in 1845. The case involved a dispute between the administrator of the estate of William Graham and the executor of the estate of John McCormick. The dispute centered around the ownership of a tract of land in Kentucky. The administrator of Graham's estate claimed that the land belonged to Graham, while the executor of McCormick's estate argued that the land belonged to McCormick. The Supreme Court ultimately sided with the executor of McCormick's estate. The Court held that the executor had a valid deed to the land, and that the deed was sufficient to establish McCormick's ownership of the land. The Court also held that the administrator of Graham's estate had failed to prove that the land belonged to Graham. As a result, the Court ruled in favor of the executor of McCormick's estate and held that the land belonged to McCormick.

In the case of McCormick v. Graham's Administrator, Justice Black delivered a dissenting opinion in which he argued that the majority had misinterpreted Kentucky law and failed to recognize an important distinction between contracts for personal services and those involving real estate. He noted that under Kentucky law, when a contract is made for personal services it can be terminated at any time by either party without cause or notice; however, when a contract involves real estate it cannot be terminated unless there is breach of its terms or some other legal justification. In this case, Justice Black believed that since the agreement was related to land sales rather than providing personal services, it should not have been subject to termination without cause as determined by the majority opinion. Furthermore, he argued that if such agreements were allowed to be unilaterally ended then individuals would no longer feel secure in their investments and businesses could suffer irreparable harm due to lack of stability in contractual relationships.