Barber Asphalt Corp. v. La Fera Grecco Contracting Co.

116 F.2d 211
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Third Circuit
DecidedDecember 5, 1940
Docket7397
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 116 F.2d 211 (Barber Asphalt Corp. v. La Fera Grecco Contracting Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Barber Asphalt Corp. v. La Fera Grecco Contracting Co., 116 F.2d 211 (3d Cir. 1940).

Opinions

BIGGS, Circuit Judge.

Barber Asphalt Corporation, formally joined as a plaintiff, successor to Barber Asphalt Company and the owner of Hayden United States Patent No. 1,684,671, and the real party in interest, the plaintiff Johnson-March Corporation, as exclusive licensee under the Hayden patent, brought suit against the defendant La Fera Grecco Contracting Company alleging direct infringement of claim 4 of the patent. StulzSickles Company intervened in the suit and alleged in a' counterclaim that the plaintiffs were.violating the anti-trust laws of the United States in that the plaintiffs were attempting illegally to extend the monopoly of the patent. Stulz-Sickles Company was required to intervene by its contract with La Fera Grecco, which compelled it to defend the latter company and save it harmless in any infringement suit. The defendant Thompson Materials Corporation was brought into the proceedings by Stulz-Sickles as a defendant to the counterclaim. We shall deal with the relations of these companies to one another in more detail at a later point in this opinion.

[212]*212• The Hayden patent, issued September 18, 1928 upon an' application filed October 12, 1925, is for a method of preventing evaporation from concrete during curing. As is generally known concrete is composed of a mixture of cement, sand, crushed rock and water. To secure proper hydration of the cement in the mixture it is necessary that; evaporation of the water be prevented until the chemical combination o£ the water and the cement is completed. This process of hydration is known as curing, and takes approximately thirty days. If the water be lost before the chemical reaction is completed, the concrete will crumble and deteriorate. The Hayden patent discloses a method to prevent the water from leaving the mixture before hydration is completed.

In the specifications Hayden refers to various known methods of protecting concrete from water evaporation during the curing period especially applicable to roads or similar constructions where the concrete is largely exposed to air. He speaks of the application of wet burlap to the exposed surface of the concrete “immediately after finishing” replaced with wet earth or straw, of the spreading of tar on the surface of the concrete “* * * after the concrete has set, or attained a rigidity such as to enable workmen to walk on it without marring the surface.” He refers also to dikes built about the surface of the concrete to maintain water upon its surface until hydration is completed. He goes on to say that these methods are open to numerous objections in that they involve substantial expense “* * * and are ineffective in preventing the evaporation of water from the concrete during the critical period before the concrete has set, or the protection of the concrete is not attempted until substantially after the critical period has passed, as is evidenced, for example, by the occurrence of hair cracking * * Hayden then sets forth the gist of his disclosure as follows: “I have discovered that if cement or cement concrete be treated, after it is finished, i. e., smoothed off, or broomed if so finished, and before it has set, i. e., before it will support a substantial weight, such as that of a man walking on it, without marring, by the formation on the exposed surface thereof a water impervious film, which preferably will adhere to the concrete, and the concrete be then permitted to set and cure without disturbance, the concrete will cure without hair cracking .and when cured will be found to have greatly increased strength, durability and resistance to weathering as compared to concrete treated by the methods heretofore known.” Hayden states that he applies his water impervious film to the exposed surface of the cement or cement concrete to be cured before it has set. He defines “set” as “* * * a condition of firmness or rigidity such that it will support a substantial weight without marring of the surface, as for example, the weight of a man walking on it.” The patent specifications reiterate the preferred time for applying the film, as follows, “* * * the film is applied as soon as practical after the cement or concrete is laid and finished; however, it must be applied before the concrete has set, as indicated above, if the benefits of my invention are to be obtained.”

Hayden describes as materials suitable to form the impervious film ordinary liquid asphalt paint, native asphalt when dissolved in a volatile petroleum solvent, and ordinary linseed oil paint. He also states that he sprays the emulsion or bituminous matter or paint upon the “wet unset” concrete'.

Only the fourth claim of the patent is in litigation in the suit at bar. It claims: “The method of preventing evaporation of water from the surface of a freshly laid concrete roadway which includes spraying upon such surface, before the concrete has set, a bituminous emulsion for the formation of an adherent water impervious bituminous film thereon.”

An examination of Hayden’s'original patent application fails to disclose the conception now so heavily emphasized by the plaintiffs to sustain the patent’s validity, namely the application of the water-resistant film or bituminous emulsion before the concrete has set, or has attained a rigidity sufficient to support the weight of a man without marring its surface. That this is the case is glaringly apparent when one examines the amendments made to Hayden’s application in 1928.1 Indeed, there is [213]*213no reference whatsoever to the application of the water impervious film or bituminous emulsion prior to set except in the 1928 amendments. This is the very crux of the patent phase of the case at bar and presents the only valid distinction which might serve to distinguish Hayden’s disclosure over the prior art as represented by Lechler’s German Patent No. 337,134 of May, 1921. But an examination of the article on the prevention of shrinkage cracks in concrete roads by Dr. Kleinlogel, published in “Die Betonstrasse” of November 1, 1927, makes it very clear that the art had been enlightened, if that enlightenment was needed as to the necessity of painting the emulsion upon the concrete immediately after the completion of the laying of the concrete if hair cracking in the surface was to be avoided, prior to the time when the Hayden amendments were received in the Pat-,, ent Office. It follows therefore that Hayden and his assignees are caught on the horns of a dilemma, for if the 1928 amendments be material the application and hence the patent are void. Chicago & N. W. Railway Company v. Sayles, 97 U.S. 554, 563, 24 L.Ed. 1054; Steward v. American Lava Company, 215 U.S. 161, 168, 30 S.Ct. 46, 54 L.Ed. 139; Schriber-Schroth Co. v. Cleveland Trust Co., 305 U.S. 47, 59 S.Ct. 8, 83 L.Ed. 34; Insulite Co. v. Reserve Supply Co., 8 Cir., 60 F.2d 433, 435. If upon the other hand these amendments made in 1928 are not material Playden’s disclosures are anticipated completely by Lechler’s patent.

Lechler states that it is well known that cement concrete attains strength more quickly if it is kept moist and that this result could be obtained “* * * by toilsome sprinkling, by covering with moist bags,” etc.

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Bluebook (online)
116 F.2d 211, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/barber-asphalt-corp-v-la-fera-grecco-contracting-co-ca3-1940.