Cornman v. Graeber Stringing & Wiring Mach. Co.

69 F. Supp. 550, 70 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 530, 1946 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1818
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedAugust 27, 1946
DocketNo. 4536
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 69 F. Supp. 550 (Cornman v. Graeber Stringing & Wiring Mach. Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cornman v. Graeber Stringing & Wiring Mach. Co., 69 F. Supp. 550, 70 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 530, 1946 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1818 (E.D. Pa. 1946).

Opinion

WELSH, District Judge.

In this action the plaintiff seeks to enjoin the defendants from using the name of Graeber in the manufacture and sale of certain tag wiring machines, to restrain them from employing Frank Graeber in such business, and to secure an accounting of profits derived by the defendants from the manufacture and sale of Graeber machines. From the pleadings and the evidence, we make the following findings of fact:

1. The plaintiff is a resident of Pennsylvania and is in the business of manufacturing and selling tag wiring and stringing machines at Conshohocken under the registered name Graeber Machine Works.

2. The defendant New Era Manufacturing Company, a New Jersey corporation, is engaged in manufacturing equipment for making and printing tags and labels at Paterson, New Jersey. The defendant Graeber Stringing & Wiring Machine Company is a New Jersey corporation manufacturing and selling tag wiring and stringing machines at Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, and is wholly owned by the defendant New Era Manufacturing Company.

3. The amount in controversy exceeds $3,000, exclusive of interest costs, and this court has jurisdiction by reason of diversity of the citizenship of the parties.

4. On and for many years prior to April 1, 1940, one Frank Graeber manufactured and sold unpatented wiring, stringing and special machinery for use in the manufacture of tags. By reason of his special skill and the merit of his product, he had acquired a unique and valuable reputation in the tag industry, and he enjoyed a substantial portion of its trade. He did business as the Graeber Machine Works at Conshohocken and his products were generally known as “Graeber” machines, which were uniformly and particularly identified by that name.

5. Frank Graeber, desiring to be relieved of the responsibility of the business in 1939, offered it for sale through the plaintiff Cornman, who was then a real estate salesman. No satisfactory purchaser was procured, and as a result of their dealings, Graeber and Cornman entered into an oral arrangement under which they engaged in the operation of the Graeber Machine Works for several months on a tentative basis.

[552]*5526. On April 1, 1940, Graeber and Corn-man entered into a written contract which, after reciting Graeber’s desire to be relieved of the management and financial affairs and Comman’s willingness to take over the business and pay Graeber a royalty, provided for the sale, to Cornman for $1 consideration, of the Graeber Machine Works, its equipment, material, contracts, good will and right to use the name Graeber, as long as the agreement was in effect. Cornman has continued to engage in business under the registered name Graeber Machine Works and he has used no other name.

7. The agreement provided that the plaintiff Cornman employ Graeber at $1 per year as “sole consultant engineer with absolute and sole jurisdiction to dictate * * policies for the remodeling and improving * * * and exercise complete control over the type of machine to be made * *,” which employment was to continue as long as Graeber desired to furnish such services. It further provided that if the plaintiff should desire to terminate the contract he was to transfer the assets back to Graeber at inventory price. The agreement also provided for the payment of royalties to Graeber and to his wife upon his death, in accordance with a signed scale of rates. The right to terminate the agreement has not been exercised by the plaintiff.

8. Pursuant to the contract, Cornman gave up his real estate business activities and managed and handled the financial affairs of the business; Graeber ran the shop and had full charge and control of the manufacturing policy and production.

9. In August of 1941 the defendant.New Era Manufacturing Company had orders for five tag stringing machines for its customers and requested the plaintiff to make them. The plaintiff was unable to do so because of his existing manufacturing limitations and the New Era Manufacturing Company thereupon requested of the plaintiff the right to manufacture such machines upon terms mutually satisfactory.

10. As a result of such negotiations, the plaintiff and New Era Manufacturing Company by an exchange of letters entered into a contract under which the New Era Manufacturing Company was given the right to manufacture five stringing machines as per the plaintiff’s model and with his co-operation, on condition that New Era Manufacturing Company “would not duplicate them in excess of the five specified,” without the plaintiff’s agreement. Such restriction was interpreted by the parties “to mean that New Era Manufacturing Company would at no time in the future use the knowledge and information given to it by the plaintiff in the production of machines which are exact duplicates of the plaintiff’s machines or so similar as to make it evident that the principles and essential features are derived substantially from the plaintiff’s model.”

11. In pursuance of that agreement New Era Manufacturing Company produced five stringing machines with the co-operation of the plaintiff and Graeber, and no other like machines have been manufactured by New Era Manufacturing Company since that time.

12. On December 1, 1943, the plaintiff’s plant was badly damaged by a fire which destroyed the office, drawings, and patterns, and caused a shut-down of the plant.

13. Thereafter Graeber visited the plaintiff’s plant less frequently, failed to make new drawings, and finally ceased to attend the plant or to render any service some time in February, 1944.

14. In March, 1944, Graeber communicated with the president of the New Era Manufacturing Company and entered into negotiations looking to the establishment of a business for the purpose of producing the Graeber machines. New Era Manufacturing Company thereupon sought to purchase the plaintiff’s business for $6,000, but he declined to sell. Whereupon the New Era Manufacturing Company caused the defendant Graeber Stringing & Wiring Machine Company to be incorporated on May 19, 1944, for the purpose of manufacturing Graeber machines, which Company now operates a plant at Conshohocken where it produces such machines in competition with the plaintiff.

15. Graeber is employed by the Graeber Stringing & Wiring Machine Company as superintendent of its plant at Conshohocken [553]*553and is solely in charge of the designing and production of Graeber machines, which are similar in plan and operation to those of the plaintiff, although changes and improvements have been made.

16. Although the New Era Manufacturing Company obtained preliminary knowledge and assistance in 1941 and prepared designs and drawings from an operating machine for the purpose of manufacturing the five machines then in contemplation, it did not succeed in producing a satisfactory machine without the aid of the plaintiff and the technical assistance of Frank Graeber. When New Era Manufacturing Company, through its subsidiary, Graeber Stringing & Wiring Machine Company, engaged in the manufacture of Graeber machines in 1944, it obtained the knowledge and ability to manufacture such machines by the employment of Frank Graeber whose technical knowledge and experience were essential to the successful manufacture of Graeber machines.

17. The plaintiff Graeber Machine Works produces Graeber machines by virtue of the agreement between Graeber and Cornman made on April 1, 1940.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
69 F. Supp. 550, 70 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 530, 1946 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1818, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cornman-v-graeber-stringing-wiring-mach-co-paed-1946.