John Wilcox and Thomas Wilcox brought a case against the Executors of Kemp Plummer in 1830. The plaintiffs argued that they were entitled to receive money from an estate, as it was part of their father's will. However, the defendants claimed that since John had already received his share of the inheritance before his father died, he could not be given any more funds from the estate. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of John and Thomas Wilcox, finding that even though John had received some money prior to his father's death, this did not negate their right to inherit according to their father’s wishes. Therefore, they were both awarded damages for what would have been due them under their late father’s will if he had still been alive at the time of distribution.

In the case of John v. Wilcox and Thomas Wilcox vs. The Executors of Kemp Plummer, the dissenting opinion was that a contract between two parties should be enforced even if it is not in writing or signed by both parties. In this case, John had agreed to purchase land from Kemp Plummer but did not sign any written agreement; however, he had made payments on the property for several years before his death and there were witnesses who could attest to their verbal agreement. Despite this evidence, the majority opinion held that since no written document existed between them, no valid contract could exist either and thus denied enforcement of its terms upon John's death. The dissent argued that such an interpretation would lead to injustice as it would deny recognition of contracts based solely on technicalities rather than actual proof they were entered into with mutual consent and consideration given by both sides; therefore they concluded that oral agreements should still be enforceable under law regardless if there is a lack of formal documentation present or not.