This case involved two unusual parties. Francois Coussotte was one of the earliest settlers of Arkansas. Etienne Vaugine was almost certainly a relative of Francois Vaugine, perhaps his son. Francois Vaugine was one of the leading citizens of the Arkansas Post at the time of the Louisiana Purchase, and had served as one of the first judges of the first American court at the Post.

In this case, on March 14, 1826, Vaugine's attorneys Robert Oden and Ambrose Sevier filed suit in the Superior Court, alleging that Francois Coussotte had made three promissory notes in favor of Vaugine in 1824 and had not paid any of them. Vaugine therefore was suing in debt.

Clerk David McKinney issued a summons for Coussotte. However, Samuel Rutherford, the Sheriff of Pulaski County, was unable to serve it "in consequence of high water." A second summons was issued in May, but there is no indication that the sheriff ever received it or tried to serve it. The last summons was issued in May of 1827. H.B.R. Thetford, Sheriff of Arkansas County, served it on Coussotte "by reading." At the October 1828 term of the Superior Court, on the motion of Coussotte, the suit was "stricken from the docket" and Coussotte recovered his costs from Vaugine.

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