Berliner Gramophone Co. v. Seaman

113 F. 750, 51 C.C.A. 440, 1902 U.S. App. LEXIS 3992
Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit·Decided February 4, 1902·No. No. 412·Published·Cited by 11 cases

Opinion

SIMONTON, Circuit Judge.

This case comes up again by appeal from an order of the circuit court of the United States for the Western district of Virginia granting a temporary injunction on the filing of an amended and supplemental bill. The case has been in this court on appeal from an order of the same court granting a temporary injunction upon an original bill. The appeal was heard May 18, 1901, [751] opinion filed in July, 1901 (110 Fed. 30), and by the mandate the injunction was dissolved, and the case was remanded to the circuit court, with instructions to dismiss the bill. It seems, however, that pending this appeal, and before citation issued or served, before the record was filed in this court, the court below, on application of complainant, had permitted an amended supplemental bill to be filed. The petition for leave to file this amended supplemental bill was filed October 17, 1900, whilst the court had the question as to the injunction on the original bill under consideration. On December 3, 1900, leave was given to file the amended supplemental bill after argument by counsel on both sides. The supplemental bill was filed December 7th following. The defendant filed demurrer to the whole bill January 7, 1901. This was set down for argument, and in the order it was provided that, as soon as the demurrer shall have been passed upon, the defendant shall have leave co plead or answer thereto, as he may be advised, in accordance with the equity rules. On March 23, 1901, argument was had on the demurrer, and it was overruled. Thereupon, by leave of the court, idle defendant filed its answer. The complainant thereupon moved the. court for a temporary injunction on the prayers of his bill. The court on the same day granted the motion so far as the fifth prayer was concerned, to wit, restraining the defendant from prosecuting an action at law brought by it against the complainant in the circuit court of the United States for the Southern district of New York, praying damages'against him for breach of the contract, the subject-matter of this suit in equity. A decision upon the other prayers of the complainant was reserved. Thereupon the defendant was allowed an appeal on May 4, 1901, on assignments of error filed that day, and the case Is here.

In advance of the discussion of the assignments of error, the defendant in the court below (appellant here) contends that the dismissal of the original bill carries with it the dismissal of this amended and supplemental bill. As has been said, nothing appeared on the record, and no mention was made in the argument of the first case, of the leave to file a supplemental bill and the orders thereon immediately following the decree appealed from, all filed before that appeal was finally completed. If such facts had appeared, it is more than probable that this court would have postponed the hearing of the appeal. The question now is, does this dismissal of the original bill operate as a dismissal of all proceedings subsequent to the date of the order appealed from in the first case? The motion for leave to file an amended and supplemental bill was an admission by complainant that the original bill was defective in important particulars, and the action of the court in granting leave to file the amended and supplemental bill was a recognition of this position. So, when the cause was heard here, it was not the case made below, but on a condition of the case admitted on all sides to be defective, and with its defects cured so far as the court below was concerned. Apart from any authority, it would seem that on principle the decision of this court upon a defective presentation of the case should not be Conclusive of it in all respects. An amended bill is a continuation of the original bill, and forms a part of it. The originar and amended bills constitute one pleading and [752] one record, 1 Daniell, Ch. Pl. & Prac. p. 402, c. 6, § 7. If they constitute one record, then everything in the amended bill and supplemental bill has as much claim upon the attention of the court as anything in the original bill. The real record is the amended and supplemental bill with the original bill, and they, amalgamated, constitute the case of complainant. In other words, the court no longer looks into the original bill to ascertain the character of relief sought, but to the new record, made up of the original and the amended and supplemental bills, and deals exclusively with that. This is shown by the illustration Mr. Daniell gives to the rule just quoted from him. “When,” says he, “an original bill has been fully answered, and amendments are after-wards made, to which defendant does not answer, the whole record may be taken pro confesso generally, and an order to take the bill pro confesso as to the amendments only will be irregular.” Daniell’s doctrine on this subject is followed in French v. Hay, 22 Wall. 246, 22 L. Ed. 854; Phosphate Co. v. Brown, 20 C. C. A. 428, 74 Fed. 323, 42 U. S. App. 57; Miller v. McIntyre, 6 Pet. 62, 8 L. Ed. 320. It is clear that at the time these parties were heard in this court upon the original bill the controversy between them was no longer presented by the original bill, but was contained in a record made up of the original bill and the amended and supplemental bills. So the dismissal of the original bill did not work a dismissal of the controversy.

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Berliner Gramophone Co. v. Seaman, 113 F. 750, 51 C.C.A. 440, 1902 U.S. App. LEXIS 3992 (4th Cir. 1902).

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