## Facts

- Robins Island is a roughly 445-acre island in Peconic Bay, Long Island, New York.
- In 1715, Joseph Wickham, Sr. acquired the island and created an estate tail; in 1754, Parker Wickham inherited.
- In 1779, during the American Revolution, New York enacted an Act of Attainder against Parker Wickham for loyalist allegiance, confiscating his property.
- New York later sold Robins Island in 1784 in fee simple to Benjamin Tallmadge and Caleb Brewster; Southold Development Corporation (SDC) traces title through that conveyance.
- Robins Island Preservation Fund, Inc. (RIPF), a nonprofit, claimed it succeeded to Parker Wickham’s interests and owned an approximately 75% undivided interest.
- RIPF asserted (i) New York lacked sovereignty over Robins Island in 1779 because it was under British control, (ii) the 1783 Treaty of Peace barred confiscations once it took effect and New York allegedly took possession only afterward, and (iii) the attainder reached only Parker Wickham’s life estate, leaving the fee to descend through his heirs.
- RIPF sued in the Eastern District of New York seeking declaratory relief establishing its ownership and to block SDC’s planned development; the district court ruled for SDC.

## Issues

1. Whether New York’s 1779 Act of Attainder was invalid as applied to Robins Island because New York allegedly lacked sovereignty or jurisdiction over the island at the time.
2. Whether the 1783 Treaty of Peace barred New York’s confiscation or later sale of Robins Island, given the asserted timing of physical possession.
3. Whether the Act of Attainder and ensuing forfeiture transferred only a life estate or instead divested the Wickham line of the fee simple interest.

## Decision

- The Second Circuit affirmed the judgment for SDC.
- The court upheld the validity of New York’s Revolutionary-era confiscation of Robins Island under the 1779 Act of Attainder.
- The court held the 1783 Treaty of Peace did not invalidate the confiscation or the state’s 1784 conveyance.
- The court rejected RIPF’s claim that only a life estate was forfeited, concluding the state acquired and conveyed fee simple title.
- RIPF therefore had no enforceable ownership interest superior to SDC’s chain of title.

## Legal Principles

- Legislative confiscations by attainder may effect a completed forfeiture at enactment, vesting title in the state as a matter of law even if physical possession changes later.
- Treaty restrictions on “future confiscations” do not retroactively undo confiscations treated as legally completed before the treaty took effect.
- In interpreting the scope of forfeiture under an attainder statute, courts may treat the forfeiture as reaching the full interest held and vesting the fee in the sovereign, permitting a subsequent fee-simple conveyance that defeats later claims through heirs.
- Federal courts are reluctant to disturb long-settled titles derived from Revolutionary-era confiscations through later private title challenges.

## Conclusion

The Second Circuit concluded that New York validly confiscated Robins Island in 1779 and conveyed fee simple title in 1784, that the 1783 Treaty of Peace did not negate the taking, and that RIPF’s theories did not overcome SDC’s historically settled chain of title.


Robins Island Pres. Fund, Inc. v. S. Dev. Corp., 959 F.2d 409 (2d Cir. 1992)