Juilliard v. Greenman
United States Supreme Court
110 U.S. 421 (1884)

- Written by Miller Jozwiak, JD
Facts
A purchaser (defendant) bought goods from a seller (defendant). The purchaser sought to satisfy debt by offering the seller United States notes (i.e., dollars) that had been issued by the federal government during the Civil War. Specifically, during the Civil War, Congress passed legislation authorizing the use of paper money that could be legal tender for all debts, public and private. Following the Civil War, Congress allowed the notes to be turned in to the Treasury Department in exchange for metal currency (i.e., coins). But Congress later forbade the Treasury Department from retiring the paper currency through such exchange. The goal of this later legislation was to ensure that the paper currency remained in circulation. There was no dispute that the paper money the purchaser had offered the seller consisted of genuine notes under this legislation. The seller sued the purchaser, claiming that the paper money was invalid because Congress did not have the power to make paper money legal tender for the payment of private debts. The lower courts rejected this argument.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Gray, J.)
Dissent (Field, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 815,000 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.