The Fortuna – Krause, et al. Claimants was a case heard by the United States Supreme Court in 1817. The claimants were merchants from Hamburg who had purchased goods on credit from an American merchant and then sold them to another party for cash. When the original seller of the goods went bankrupt, they attempted to recover their losses through a suit against his assignees in bankruptcy court. However, this claim was denied due to lack of evidence that it was not fraudulent or collusive between parties involved with the transaction. The claimants appealed this decision all the way up to U.S Supreme Court which ultimately ruled that since there was no proof of fraud or collusion between any parties involved with the transaction, they should be allowed to recover their losses as creditors under bankruptcy law at that time and thus affirmed lower court’s ruling denying recovery for these claims

In the case of Fortuna-Krause, et al. Claimants, a majority opinion was issued by the Supreme Court affirming an earlier decision that denied compensation to certain claimants for losses sustained during a Spanish naval expedition in 1804. However, Justice Story dissented from this ruling and argued that these individuals should be compensated for their losses as they had acted in good faith when providing supplies to the Spanish navy. He noted that it would be unjust if those who provided goods or services were not paid simply because Spain could not fulfill its obligations due to political changes beyond their control. Furthermore, he argued that since Congress had authorized payment of such claims before Spain's independence was recognized by America, then it should still honor them despite any intervening events which may have occurred afterwards.