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''Poole v. Fleeger'', 36 U.S. 185 (1837) is a 7-to-0 ruling by the Supreme Court of the United States which held that the states of Kentucky and Tennessee had properly entered into an agreement establishing a mutual border between the two states. The plaintiffs in the case were granted title to property improperly conveyed by the state of Tennessee north of this border. In the ruling, the Supreme Court asserted the fundamental right of states and nations to establish their borders regardless of private contract, and made a fundamental statement about the rights of parties to object to a trial court ruling under the rules of civil procedure. ==Background== In 1606, during European colonization of the Americas, James I of England granted the Charter of 1606 to the newly established Virginia Company, asserting royal title to Native American-occupied land between the 34th and 45th latitudes and inland, and permitting the Virginia Company to establish colonies there.〔Hubbard, ''American Boundaries: The Nation, the States, the Rectangular Survey,'' 2009, p. 7-9.〕 In 1609, James I redefined the Colony of Virginia's boundaries to extend the colony's northern and southern boundaries as well as asserting title to all land west to the Pacific Ocean.〔Hubbard, ''American Boundaries: The Nation, the States, the Rectangular Survey,'' 2009, p. 10.〕 In 1632, Charles I of England took the Colony of Virginia's grant north of the Potomac River away from Virginia and gave it to the new colony known as the Province of Maryland.〔Hubbard, ''American Boundaries: The Nation, the States, the Rectangular Survey,'' 2009, p. 22-23.〕 Subsequent negotiations between the Province of Pennsylvania colony and Colony of Virginia further established the Virginia colony's northwestern border.〔Hubbard, ''American Boundaries: The Nation, the States, the Rectangular Survey,'' 2009, p. 28-29, 34.〕 In 1629, Charles I also granted Sir Robert Heath a charter giving him title to Native American-occupied land from the northern boundary of what is modern-day Florida north to Albemarle Sound (31st latitude), extending from the Atlantic Ocean west to the Pacific Ocean.〔Chiorazzi and Most, ''Prestatehood Legal Materials: A Fifty-State Research Guide, Including New York City and the District of Columbia,'' 2006, p. 840.〕 In 1663, Charles II of England revoked the Heath charter and issued a new charter to eight English noblemen (the "Lords and Proprietors").〔 In 1665, this charter was amended to extend the land grant northward roughly to the current border between North Carolina and Virginia.〔Chiorazzi and Most, ''Prestatehood Legal Materials: A Fifty-State Research Guide, Including New York City and the District of Columbia,'' 2006, p. 840-841.〕 In 1729, the Proprietors were forced to turn their charters over to George II of Great Britain, and North Carolina was separated from South Carolina.〔Chiorazzi and Most, ''Prestatehood Legal Materials: A Fifty-State Research Guide, Including New York City and the District of Columbia,'' 2006, p. 841.〕 Conflicting land claims as well as claims that land grants extended to the Pacific Ocean proved highly contentious issues after the American Revolution. To help resolve the issue, in 1781 Virginia agreed to surrender to the United States federal government all title to its land claims west of the Ohio River.〔Ayers, Gould, Oshinsky, and Soderland, ''American Passages: A History of the United States,'' 2009, p. 174.〕 Titled was transferred in 1784, and the United States Congress passed the Land Ordinance of 1784, Land Ordinance of 1785, and the Northwest Ordinance to turn these lands into territories and (eventually) states.〔Miller, ''Native America, Discovered and Conquered: Thomas Jefferson, Lewis & Clark, and Manifest Destiny,'' 2006, p. 62.〕 North Carolina officials fought for six years over the issue of cession, but in 1790 agreed to transfer title of its western lands to the United States as well.〔Bergeron, ''Paths of Past: Tennessee, 1770–1970,'' 1979, p. 18-19.〕 Congress subsequently created the Southwest Territory (which encompassed the modern boundaries of the state of Tennessee) out of the ceded lands.〔Bergeron, ''Paths of Past: Tennessee, 1770–1970,'' 1979, p. 48.〕 In 1792, after 10 constitutional conventions and three statehood enabling acts passed by the Virginia legislature, Kentucky was admitted as a state on June 1, 1792.〔Harrison, ''Kentucky's Road to Statehood,'' 1992, p. 19-90〕 Tennessee was admitted as a state on June 1, 1796.〔Bergeron, ''Paths of Past: Tennessee, 1770–1970,'' 1979, p. 26.〕 However, Kentucky's borders were only vaguely described at points, and determination of the final border still remained when Kentucky joined the union.〔Harrison and Klotter, ''A History of Kentucky,'' 1997, p. 20.〕 In 1779–1780, Kentucky's southern border was surveyed and ascertained westward to the Tennessee River.〔 The "Walker line" tended slightly to the north and did not run truly westward along 36 degrees, 30 minutes north (which was the actual border, also called the "Mathews line").〔 Complicating matters, in 1818 Andrew Jackson and Isaac Shelby purchased from the Chickasaw Indian tribe.〔Harrison and Klotter, ''A History of Kentucky,'' 1997, p. 20-21.〕 Known as the "Jackson Purchase," the purchase's southern border (with Tennessee) ran along the Mathews line.〔Harrison and Klotter, ''A History of Kentucky,'' 1997, p. 21.〕 Although the Walker line was extended to the Ohio River (which formed the Purchase's western boundary), it was called the "Munsell line" (or "Alexander and Munsell line") on the western side of the Tennessee River and formed the new border with Tennessee.〔 Kentucky and Tennessee agreed in the Compact of 1820 to accept the Mathews line to the Tennessee River, and from that point it should follow the Munsell line.〔Garrett, ''History of the South Carolina Cession, and the Northern Boundary of Tennessee,'' 1884, p. 26-28.〕 However, between 1786 and 1795, North Carolina had given title to much land in the disputed area to American Revolutionary War veterans in compensation for their services.〔''Poole v. Fleeger'', 36 U.S. 185.〕 Tennessee had also granted land in the area to military veterans between 1809 and 1814.〔 In 1832, John Fleeger and others sued, seeking title to of land in Montgomery County, Tennessee which lay south of the Walker line and north of the Mathews line.〔''Poole v. Fleeger'', 36 U.S. 185, 186.〕 Fleeger and the other plaintiffs were the heirs of Frederick Rohrer, whose will (registered in the state of Pennsylvania) they claimed gave them title to the land.〔 Poole and the other defendants were the heirs of John Montgomery, a Virginia military veteran who had claimed the land after being given title to it by the state of Virginia in 1784.〔 A United States district court held that, under the Compact of 1820, Poole and the other plaintiffs were entitled to the land in question.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Poole v. Fleeger」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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