Furthermore, this rule is easy to administer. While it is easy to determine who has captured a wild animal, it would be very difficult to determine who was the first to pursue a wild animal. Alternatively, one may use the principle of first in time to understand this case: “He who first occupies a wild animal owns it.” Of course, the fight is over whether one must be the first to chase a wild animal or the first to capture it. The majority rules that one must be the first to capture it. Interestingly, the majority went against the established custom, which recognized hot pursuit as vesting a right of ownership in the pursuer. Among the authorities cited by the court in its opinion were the works of William Blackstone, Fleta, Jean Barbeyrac, Samuel von Pufendorf, Hugo Grotius, and Justinian I. Dissent Justice Livingston dissented. Livingston was unsatisfied with the authorities cited in the majority opinion. Instead he argued that pursuit should be considered sufficient, as it serves a useful purpose of encouraging hunters to rid the countryside of that "wild and noxious beast" known as the fox. Livingston further acknowledged that possession can be seen in relative terms where the continued chase may merely be a formality of the pre-existing control already exerted by the hunter. Livingston was also of the view that the question in Pierson "should have been submitted to the arbitration of sportsmen". In such an event, due to local custom, Post likely would have been victorious. To put it a different way, Livingston believed that if you were to ask local hunters how they felt about pursuit with respect to possession, they would have largely "regarded hot pursuit as giving rights to take an unimpeded first possession". Livingston also regarded Pierson as a "saucy intruder". Conclusion The trial court was reversed so Pierson did not have to pay any damages. As one commenter wrote: Jesse Pierson, son of Capt. David, coming from Amagansett, saw a fox run and hide down an unused well near Peters Pond and killed and took the fox. Lodowick Post and a company with him were in pursuit and chasing the fox and saw Jesse with it and claimed it as theirs, while Jesse persisted in his claim. Capt. Pierson said his son Jesse should have the fox and Capt. Post said the same of his son Lodowick and hence the