Arrott v. Standard Sanitary Mfg. Co.

131 F. 457, 1904 U.S. App. LEXIS 4913
CourtU.S. Circuit Court for the District of Western Pennsylvania
DecidedJuly 1, 1904
DocketNos. 16, 21
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 131 F. 457 (Arrott v. Standard Sanitary Mfg. Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Western Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Arrott v. Standard Sanitary Mfg. Co., 131 F. 457, 1904 U.S. App. LEXIS 4913 (circtwdpa 1904).

Opinion

ACHESON, Circuit Judge.

There are before the court for decision cross-suits in equity which have been heard together upon the pleadings and proofs. The original suit was brought by James W. Arrott, Jr., against the Standard Sanitary Manufacturing Company, for the infringement of his letters patent No. 633,941, for an improvement in dredgers for pulverulent material, granted to him on September 26 1899. The invention has relation to the sifting and distributing of powdered enameling material on the heated surface of bath tubs and other vessels, accomplished by a pneumatic agitator attached to the dredger, and adapted to vibrate the sieve. The answer to the bill in the first case set up two defenses, namely, first, the prior invention and use of this improvement by Oscar Marschuetz at Eouisville, Ky.; second, the ownership by the defendant corporation of the patented invention, and its equitable title to the patent acquired bv the defendant through and from the patentee, Arrott. Subsequently the Standard Sanitary Manufacturing Company filed a bill against James W. Arrott, Jr., setting up its alleged equitable title to the patent, and praying specific performance of an alleged contract with Arrott for the conveyance by him [458]*458to the defendant company of the patent. The patentability of the improvement is not denied, and the use by the Standard Sanitary Manufacturing Company of the patented dredger is admitted. We have then before us, and will consider in the order named, the two disputed questions involved in this litigation, to wit, the question of priority of the invention, and the question of the said company’s alleged equitable title to the invention and patent.

1. At the time of the invention of the patented improvement, James W. Arrott, Jr., was superintendent of the enameling department of the old Standard Manufacturing Company, in Allegheny City, Pa. The evidence of Reed and Hunter, witnesses for the company, the Exhibit “bill for the First Arrott Hammer,” and the testimony of Arrott himself, clearly show that Arrott’s original conception dates back at least to February 14, 1898, and that from that date until June 30, 1898, when his device had been reduced to complete and operative form, he was diligently engaged in perfecting it. Marschuetz, who is alleged to have made and used a dredger similar to Arrott’s, was superintendent of the Ahrens & Ott Company, of Louisville, Ky. — one of the concerns which afterwards was absorbed by the Standard Sanitary Manufacturing Company, a combination of a number of concerns formerly engaged in the manufacture of bath tubs and other sanitary articles and appliances. It is claimed by the company that Marschuetz made the invention about October, 1897, and used it at the plant of the Ahrens & Ott Company at Louisville for a very short period. Marschuetz himself, testifying for the company, states that, after it was used off and on for about three months, it was put aside and never again used. This dredger was not produced. It is said to have been lost in a fire which occurred in August, 1901. The alleged anticipating dates of the making and use of this Marschuetz dredger rest altogether upon the bare recollection of the witnesses for the Standard Sanitary Manufacturing Company, who testified in the fall of 1902. Not an anticipating date named by any of them is fixed by any exhibits, book entry, letter, or written memorandum whatever. These witnesses, who were mostly workmen at the Ahrens & Ott Company’s establishment, do not agree among themselves. Their testimony is vague and unsatisfactory. I have no hesitation in saying that these witnesses leave the matter of the alleged anticipation by Marschuetz in such doubt that this defense would fail even if there was no opposing evidence on the subject. As the Supreme Court of the United States declared in Deering v. Winona Harvester Works, 155 U. S. 286, 300, 15 Sup. Ct. 118, 123, 39 L. Ed. 153: “Oral testimony, unsupported by patents or exhibits, tending to show prior use of a device regularly patented, is, in the nature of the case, open to grave suspicion.” Here, however, the witnesses who testify to the alleged prior device and use by Marschuetz are met by a number of opposing witnesses, whose testimony convincingly shows that the Marschuetz device was not made or used until October 11, 1898. In my judgment, upon the question of priority of invention, the decided preponderance of the evidence is with Arrott. Moreover, under the company’s own proofs, whatever Marschuetz essayed to do ended in failure. His device belongs to the category of abandoned experiments.

[459]*459In Parham v. Machine Company, 4 Fish. P. C. 468, 482, Fed. Cas. No. 10,713, Judge McKennan (speaking also for Judge Strong) said:

“The evidence must establish clearly the priority of a completed and useful machine over the complainant’s, or it is unavailable. To doubt upon this point is to resolve it in the negative.”

In the more recent case of the Barbed-Wire Patent, 143 U. S. 275, 284, 12 Sup. Ct. 443, 447, 36 L. Ed. 154, the Supreme Court said:

“We have now to deal with certain unpatented devices, claimed to be complete anticipation of this patent, the existence and use of which are proven only by oral testimony. In view of the unsatisfactory character of such testimony, arising from the forgetfulness of witnesses, their liability to mistakes, the proneness to recollect things as the party calling them would have them recollect them, aside from the temptation to actual perjury, courts have not only imposed upon defendants the burden of proving such devices, but have required that the proof shall be clear, satisfactory, and beyond a reasonable doubt. Witnesses whose memories are prodded by the eagerness of interested parties to elicit testimony favorable to themselves are usually not to be depended upon for accurate information.”

Upon the proofs and under the authorities, I hold that the defense to the original bill based upon the alleged prior invention and use of this improvement by Marschuetz must be overruled.

2. In respect to the alleged equitable title of the Standard Sanitary Manufacturing Company to the said patent, the averments of that company contained in its answer to the original bill and in its cross-bill against James W. Arrott, Jr., are, in substance, these, namely: That Arrott was a stockholder and director of the Old Standard Manufacturing Company, and that while thus interested in that company, and employed as its superintendent at its Allegheny City factory, and, under his contract, was to use his best endeavors to advance the interests thereof, and improve and perfect appliances to be used in its business, the improvement constituting the subject-matter of letters patent No. 633,941 was made and reduced to practice, and afterwards used in the business of said company, and the expenses incurred in procuring the patent were paid by that company; that said patent was taken and held by James W. Arrott, Jr., in trust for said company, and was used by the said company until the beginning of the year 1900 with the consent of said Arrott, it being the equitable owner of the improvement and patent; that on December 30, 1899, certain property of the Standard Manufacturing Company, including its plant in Allegheny City, and all its patents, whether held in its own name or in the name of others, were sold to the Standard Sanitary Manufacturing Company; that on the 26th of January, 1900, James W.

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Bluebook (online)
131 F. 457, 1904 U.S. App. LEXIS 4913, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/arrott-v-standard-sanitary-mfg-co-circtwdpa-1904.