In Williams et al. v. Peyton's Lessee, the Supreme Court was asked to decide whether a Virginia statute that allowed for escheat of land when an owner died without heirs or devisees applied in cases where the original patentee had sold his interest before dying intestate. The court held that it did not apply and found that the purchaser from the original patentee took title free from any claim by Virginia under its escheat law because he purchased with full knowledge of all prior interests in the property and no other parties were harmed by this decision. This ruling established important precedent regarding how state laws interact with federal patents, as well as setting forth rules about how purchasers take title to real estate subject to existing interests.

In Williams et al. v. Peyton's Lessee, the Supreme Court was asked to decide whether a Virginia statute that allowed for escheat of land when an owner died without heirs or devisees applied to lands owned by non-residents of the state. The majority opinion held that it did not apply in this case because there were no laws allowing states to exercise jurisdiction over out-of-state citizens and their property; however, Justice Johnson dissented from this decision on the grounds that he believed such statutes should be upheld as valid exercises of police power by states within their own borders. He argued that since Virginia had enacted a law regarding escheats, it should be enforced regardless of where the owners resided at the time they passed away; otherwise, any person could avoid its application simply by moving outside of Virginia before dying with no heirs or devisees. Furthermore, Johnson contended that if other states followed suit and adopted similar legislation then interstate commerce would suffer due to uncertainty about which laws applied in each situation and thus impede economic growth across America as a whole.