Chesapeake & Delaware Canal Co. v. United States
United States Supreme Court
250 U.S. 123 (1919)
- Written by Rich Walter, JD
Facts
The United States government (plaintiff) sued Chesapeake & Delaware Canal Company (Canal) (defendant) to recover three unpaid dividends on the government's stock in Canal. Canal had paid fourteen previous dividends. At trial, the government was allowed to introduce evidence taken from United States Department of the Treasury record books that were compiled by constitutional and statutory authority and under the Secretary of the Treasury's direction. The books recorded fourteen dividend payments but not the three payments in question. Canal objected that the record books were inadmissible because they were not certified copies of the original payment records. The government prevailed at trial, and the appellate court affirmed the judgment. On appeal to the United States Supreme Court, Canal repeated its argument that the record books were inadmissible.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Clarke, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 812,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,300 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
