The Schooner Exchange v. McFaddon

McFaddon and another plaintiff claimed The Schooner Exchange, a ship, had been wrongfully seized from them by an individual acting for France and sued to recover it after the ship, now a French military vessel, was forced into Philadelphia's harbor by bad weather. The United States government intervened, arguing the U.S. was at peace with France, the ship had become French public property, and even if it had once been wrongfully taken from the plaintiffs, title had since validly passed to France. The district court dismissed the suit, the court of appeals reversed, and the United States appealed to the Supreme Court.