Allis v. Stowell

16 F. 783
CourtU.S. Circuit Court for the District of Eastern Wisconsin
DecidedApril 15, 1883
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 16 F. 783 (Allis v. Stowell) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Eastern Wisconsin primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Allis v. Stowell, 16 F. 783 (circtedwi 1883).

Opinion

Dyes, J.

Prom the records of this court in the litigation between Edward P. Allis and John M. Stowell upon what is known as the Beckwith patent, and in part from the allegations of the petition of Stowoll and the answer of Allis thereto, which constitute the basis of the present proceeding and which will be hereafter referred to, the following facts appear:

In 1877 the respondent, Allis, as the owner of said patent, commenced a suit in this court against the petitioner, Stowell, to establish the validity of the patent, to restrain the infringement thereof, and for an account'd profits and damages. The case was duly submitted to the court, and on the ninth day of February, 1880, an interlocutory decree was entered, adjudging the patent valid; and as Stowell, in the opinion of the court, had infringed the first claim of the patent, an injunction was granted, restraining such infringe[784]*784ment, and the ca'se was sent to a master to take an account of profits and damages.
The patented device is an improved saw-mill dog, and, as it is described in the patent, “consists-in constructing the standards with'wide-bearing faces for the logs, and in providing each with a central vertical slot or mortise, through which a series of hooks are projected to grasp a log or cant. The lower hook is curved upward to catch into the lower edge of the log next the standard, and the upper hooks are curved downward to catch into the face of thelog. .The lower hook and the series of upper hooks, therefore, move in opposite directions to grasp the log between them and prevent it from slipping. The hooks-are operated simultaneously by a lever from the back of the standard,' and by a suitable system of connecting bars.”
The patentee made three claims, which, slightly abbreviated, are as follows:
“ (1) In combination with the standard for saw-mill carriages, the hooks, C, D, adapted, to be simultaneously projected in opposite directions through the central vertical slot in the face of said standard; (2) the combination of hoóks, 0, and connecting bars, 1?, I, with the operating lever and the hook, D; (3) the combination of the supporting guard-plate, K, with a slotted standard, and the hooks, 0, D, and their attachments.” In the suit referred to, the court, upon examination of the devices exhibited to it on the hearing, and which the proofs showed were being manufactured and sold by Stowell, was of the opinion, as already stated, that the first claim of the patent had been infringed, but did not then think that a case of infringement of the second and third claims had been established. The master to whom the ease had been referred proceeded to take testimony. In the course of the proceedings before him the complainant in'the suit sought to include, as part of the subject-matter of the accounting, what are known as attachment dogs, which are dogs attached to the standards,» and which do not exhibit the feature of slots in the face of the standard itself, through which the hooks are projected. The defendant objected to the consideration of those devices on the ground that they were not covered by the interlocutory decree, which was limited to the first claim of the patent, and the master sustained the objection. Under this ruling, the accounting, as it is understood, would include only about 25 sawmill dogs manufactured and. sold by Stowell, and covered by the terms of the interlocutory decree.
The proceedings before the master are still pending. At one stage of those proceedings, it being claimed that Stowell, subsequent to the entry of the interlocutory decree and the granting of an injunction, had manufactured and sold the so-called attachment dogs, and that said dogs were infringements of the first claim of the patent, and were, therefore, covered by the decree, the complainant in the suit instituted and prosecuted a proceeding to punish Stowell for contempt in the alleged violation of the injunction granted by this court; in which proceeding the court held that as there was doubt whether the attachment dogs infringed the first claim of the patent, it wopld not determine such question of infringement in the contempt proceeding, but gave .Allis leave either to file' a supplemental bill in the original suit, which should'préseát the question whether the attachment dogs infringed the pat[785]*785ent, or to file an original bill in a new snit, wherein a contest upon that question could be made. Accordingly, Allis began a new suit against Stowell, which is now at issue on bill and answer, and in which it is sought to enjoin the manufacture and sale of the attachment dogs, and, as it is understood, any other form of saw-mill dog made and sold by Stowell which it may he claimed is an infringement of either claim of the Beckwith patent.
Pending the proceedings before the master in the first suit, Allis brought numerous suits against persons in Iowa, Illinois, and Michigan upon the Beck-with patent, alleging infringement of said patent, and seeking to enjoin the use of certain saw-mill dogs in the mills of the parties defendant in those suits, on the ground that they were infringing devices. These suits are now in progress in the courts where they were commenced.
In January, 1882, the present petitioner, Stowell, filed a petition in this conrt, asking for an injunction restraining Allis from prosecuting the suits in Iowa, and one snit then pending in Illinois, until the controversy between the parties here should be disposed of. This application was heard on the petition and answer thereto, and the court declined to grant the injunction prayed for, but gave to the petitioner the right to take proofs in support of the allegations of his petition, and to renew his application for an injunction after such proofs should be taken. Nothing further was done under that petition until the twenty-ninth day of January, 1888, when, on motion of the petitioner, the proceeding was dismissed, without prejudice.
On the thirteenth day of .February, 1883, a new petitionjvas filed by Stow-ell, which stands entitled in both the causes now pending in this court between these parties, the prayer of which is that Allis may be restrained from taking any further proceedings in the suits in Iowa, Illinois, and Michigan until the cases in this eourt are disposed of, and from instituting, or threatening to institute, any new suits or other legal proceedings on account of the infringement of the Beckwith patent by any of the vendees of the petitioner, Stowell, or of the firm of Filer, Stowell & Co. This petition alleges the pend-ency of the suits in this court, and of the suits in the states named, and, gen-, erally, the condition of the litigation between the parties; that the suits in Iowa, Illinois, and Michigan are against persons and firms who purchased saw-mill dogs from Filer, Stowell & Co., and that these dogs are the subject of the accounting now pending in the first suit, brought in this court; on information and belief, that Allis, by the prosecution of the suits in question, is seeking to harass and injure the petitioner, Stowell, in his business and trade, with saw-mill owners, and with the defendants in those suits; and that he, Stowell, is pecuniarily responsible, and able and willing to pay any damages or profits which it may be decreed he shall pay in the cases vending in this district.

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Bluebook (online)
16 F. 783, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/allis-v-stowell-circtedwi-1883.