William Thompson and John Pickell brought a case against Lewis Roberts, Gideon R. Burbank, and Addison Roberts to the Supreme Court of the United States. The plaintiffs argued that they had been wrongfully deprived of their property by defendants who had taken possession without legal authority or right. They sought damages for this alleged trespass on their land as well as an injunction preventing further interference with it. The Supreme Court held that there was no evidence presented to support the claim of trespass and thus dismissed the complaint in favor of the defendants. This decision established precedent which has since been used in cases involving similar claims; namely, that if a plaintiff cannot prove any actual damage caused by another’s actions then they are not entitled to relief from court proceedings

In the dissenting opinion of William Thompson and John Pickell v. Lewis Roberts, Gideon R. Burbank, and Addison Roberts, Justice Nelson argued that the court should have reversed the judgment of the lower court in favor of defendants because it was based on an erroneous interpretation of a deed from 1825 which granted certain rights to plaintiffs' predecessors-in-title. The deed provided for a right to use water from two streams for milling purposes but did not provide any other rights or privileges with respect to those streams; therefore, according to Justice Nelson's dissent, defendants had no legal authority under this deed to construct dams across either stream without first obtaining permission from plaintiffs or their predecessors-in-title. Furthermore, he argued that even if such permission were obtained by defendants at some point after construction began on one dam (which was never established), they still would have been liable for damages caused by constructing both dams since they acted without proper authorization when building them in the first place.