Barron v. Baltimore

During storms, these streams carried sand and silt down to the harbor and deposited it in front of Barron's wharf. The water grew steadily shallower until no sizable vessel could use the wharf. In 1822, Barron sued the city in the Baltimore County Court, asking for money to compensate him for the loss of his business. (John Craig was deceased by then, and Barron represented his former partner's interests as well as his own.)

Barron argued that Baltimore had violated his property rights under state law, but the city's attorneys denied any liability. The Maryland legislature had granted the city power to pave streets and regulate the flow of water. The inadvertent silting up of the harbor was a general nuisance affecting all the city's inhabitants and not directed toward Barron in particular.

Barron won his case in the Baltimore County Court, which awarded him $4,500 in damages. The city appealed to the Maryland Court of Appeals, the state's highest court. When it ruled against Barron on all points, his lawyers carried the case to the U.S. Supreme Court on a writ of error. The records do not explain why the Supreme Court did not hear Barron's appeal until 1833, some ten years after the original suit in the state courts.

Charles Mayer, Barron's attorney, went to Washington, D.C. prepared to present two separate arguments. The city derived its powers from the state, and its acts had wronged Barron under state law. Alternatively, Barron was a citizen of the United States. As such, he was owed protection under the Constitution's Fifth Amendment, which forbids the taking of private property for public use "without just compensation." The Supreme Court had jurisdiction because this constitutional question was involved.

To defend its interests, Maryland sent one of its legal giants, Roger Brooke Taney, the state's attorney general. Shortly afterwards, President Andrew Jackson raised Taney to U.S. attorney general. He eventually succeeded Marshall as chief justice of the Supreme Court.

When the day came for oral arguments, the Court told Attorney Mayer to discuss only whether the Supreme Court had jurisdiction under the Fifth Amendment. When Mayer finished, it then was Taney's turn to speak for Maryland. But Chief Justice Marshall stopped him short before he could address the Court.