J. Robert Osborne
On April 6, 1846 the Scotts case against the widow of Emerson was filed with the Missouri Circuit Court. There was uncertainty of who actually owned the Scotts and the case was decided in favor of Mrs. Emerson. In 1847, the attorneys for Scott asked for a new trial and added two more defendants to their case, a Mr. Russell and the brother of Mrs. Emerson, Mr. John Sanford (when the case was sent to the Supreme Court a clerk accidentally added a "d" to his name and Sanford became Sandford). The Scotts were granted a retrial but it was delayed by an appeal by the defendants and by the judicial system until 1850. It was now four years after the case was started and the national debate over the Compromise of 1850 was in full swing. Vast amounts of new territory had been acquired out West as a result of the Mexican American War and the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 was about to be strengthened.
This time the jury found in favor of granting the Scotts their freedom but Mr. Sanford appealed the decision to the Missouri Supreme Court where it took another two years for the case to be heard. 1852 was also the years that the book, "Uncle Tom's Cabin" by Harriet Beecher Stowe became a national best seller.
The makeup of the Missouri Supreme Court had changed and the verdict in favor of Scott by the lower court was overturned. John Sandford had now moved to New York State and Scott's attorneys then filed a new case in Federal Court claiming that because Scott still lived in Missouri and he was suing a resident of another state that the Diversity of Citizenship clause in the Constitution called for Federal courts to decide cases between people from two different states. The judge that heard that case accepted it on its merits and then ruled, once again, in favor of Mr. Sandford. Scott's attorneys then filed an appeal to the United States Supreme Court.