This Supreme Court case involved Clement Smith, the administrator of Samuel Robertson's estate, and the President and Directors of the Union Bank of Georgetown. The dispute arose when Smith sued for payment on a promissory note that was made by Robertson before his death. The bank argued that they were not liable to pay because it had been more than six years since Robertson had died and thus any claim against him was barred by limitation laws in place at the time. However, Smith argued that he should be allowed to collect due to an exception in those same laws which stated that if there was no executor or administrator appointed within two years after someone’s death then their debts could still be collected from their estate even after six years had passed. Ultimately, this argument prevailed as Chief Justice Marshall ruled in favor of Smith stating “the debt is not barred until two years have elapsed without an appointment; but if such appointment has been made within two year…then all claims are preserved” regardless of how long ago someone died.

In the case of Clement Smith, Administrator of Samuel Robertson, Deceased v. The President and Directors of the Union Bank of Georgetown, a dissenting opinion was issued by Justice Story. He argued that while it is true that creditors have priority in bankruptcy proceedings over shareholders or stockholders when it comes to recovering their debts from an insolvent corporation; this should not be extended to cases where there are no assets left for distribution after all liabilities have been paid off. In such cases, he maintained that shareholders should receive some compensation for their losses as they had invested money into the company with expectations of returns on investment which were never realized due to its failure. Furthermore, he noted that if creditors were allowed to take precedence over shareholders in these circumstances then investors would be discouraged from investing capital into businesses and thus economic growth would suffer greatly as a result.