Read Willcox v. Stroup, 06-1179

In case involving the ownership of papers from the administrations of two governors of South Carolina during the Civil War, holding that the State failed to establish that the papers constituted public property under state law of the Civil War era, is affirmed as the long possession of the papers by the debtor's and defendants' family creates a presumption of ownership in their favor and the State has adduced insufficient evidence to defeat this presumption.

Appellate Information

• Decided 10/27/2006
• Published 10/27/2006

Judges

• Before WILKINSON and NIEMEYER, Circuit Judges, and Henry E. HUDSON, United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Virginia, sitting by designation.

Court

• United States Fourth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• ARGUED:  James Emory Smith, Jr., Assistant Deputy Attorney General, Office of the Attorney General of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, for Appellants.  Kenneth Charles Krawcheck, Charleston, South Carolina, for Appellees.   ON BRIEF:  Henry D. McMaster, Attorney General, Robert D. Cook, Assistant Deputy Attorney General, Office of the Attorney General of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, for Appellants.