In Wicke v. Ostrum, the Supreme Court of the United States heard a case involving an alleged breach of contract between two parties. The plaintiff, Mr. Wicke, had contracted with defendant Mr. Ostrum to purchase certain real estate in Pennsylvania for $2,000 and paid him $1,500 as part payment on the agreement that he would pay the remaining balance within six months from date of sale or forfeit his right to purchase it altogether. When he failed to make full payment by the due date set out in their agreement, Mr. Ostrum refused to accept any further payments and instead sold it off at public auction for more than double what was originally agreed upon with Mr. Wicke; thus prompting this lawsuit against him for damages incurred due to his breach of contract and refusal to accept further payments after expiration date had passed without full settlement being made by buyer (Mr Wicke). After hearing arguments from both sides on appeal before them justices ruled unanimously in favor of plaintiff awarding him damages equal amounting difference between original price agreed upon ($2k) less what was already paid ($1k) plus interest accrued since time period expired when no further payments were accepted by seller (Ostrum).

In Wicke v. Ostrum, the Supreme Court was asked to decide whether a contract between two parties that had been partially performed could be enforced by one of them against the other. The majority opinion held that it could not, as there were no mutual promises made in exchange for performance and thus no consideration to support enforcement of the contract. However, Justice Field dissented from this decision on the grounds that partial performance should be sufficient consideration for enforcing a contract when both parties have received some benefit from it. He argued that if one party has already performed their part of an agreement then they should be able to enforce its terms even without any additional consideration being provided by either side; otherwise people would never feel secure entering into contracts with each other since they would always fear having their efforts wasted if another party failed to fulfill their end of the bargain.