Maynard v. Hill

In 1850, David Maynard abandoned his first wife, Lydia Maynard, and moved from Ohio to Oregon Territory, which in 1852 granted him and his wife equal shares in 640 acres conditioned on his farming it until 1856. Later that year, the Oregon legislature passed a special act dissolving the Maynards' marriage, and David remarried in 1853. After David completed the farming requirement in 1856, officials determined neither wife had been married to him for the full four-year term and therefore denied both a half-share, selling that portion to Hill and Lewis (defendants). After Lydia died, her children (plaintiffs) sued Hill and Lewis for that half-share; both the trial court and the territorial supreme court ruled against them, and they appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.