What did the United States Supreme Court decide in its first case?

The study of Constitutional Law should start at the beginning.  So, what did the United States Supreme Court decide in its first case, docketed in 1791?  The answer is easy. NOTHING!  The parties in Van Staphorst v. Maryland settled the case before it was called for oral arguments.  Judges like nothing better than settlement without trial, so we can presume that the justices were satisfied with the manner in which the case was resolved. The Van Staphorst brothers loaned money to the State of Maryland during the Revolutionary War, and Maryland resisted repayment of the loan.  Although the case did not establish any new "rule of law," it clearly stands as the first example of the "rule of fact" that sometimes it takes a lawsuit to get the other party to a dispute to become reasonable.