Fairbanks, Morse & Co. v. American Valve & Meter Co.

34 F.2d 869, 2 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 221, 1929 U.S. App. LEXIS 3321
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedJuly 18, 1929
DocketNos. 3776, 3782
StatusPublished

This text of 34 F.2d 869 (Fairbanks, Morse & Co. v. American Valve & Meter Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fairbanks, Morse & Co. v. American Valve & Meter Co., 34 F.2d 869, 2 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 221, 1929 U.S. App. LEXIS 3321 (7th Cir. 1929).

Opinion

ALSCHULER, Circuit Judge.

Both parties (hereinafter called plaintiffs and defendants as in the District Court) appeal from a deeree upon an accounting under finding of infringement of United States patent No. 818,968 to Johnson, 1906 (claims 1, 21, and 38), and No. 798,406 to Foster, 1905 (claim 1); the said claims of both patents having theretofore been held by this court to be valid and infringed. American Valve & Meter Co. et al. v. Fairbanks, Morse & Co. et al., (C. C. A.) 249 F. 234.

These appeals were before this court in 1926, and we then held that the transcript of the evidence did not comply with the requirements of Equity Rule 75b relating to the condensation and narration of the evidence, and we declined to consider such propositions as were dependent upon the evidence, and affirmed the deeree of the District Court upon the accounting, save in some particulars not involving consideration of the evidence. 18 F. (2d) 716. .

A writ of certiorari was granted by the Supreme Court “to enable it to review the ruling respecting the non-observance of the equity rule,” and the deeree of this court was reversed, and the cause remanded to this court for further proceedings in conformity with the opinion of the Supreme Court. 276 U. S. 305, 48 S. Ct. 317, 72 L. Ed. 584.

Thereupon a condensation of the evidence in narrative form was prepared, which was approved by the District Court and incorporated in the transcript. •

All of the proceedings have reference to a type of standpipes for delivering water to locomotive tenders, known as Sheffield standpipe No. 11. Concurrently with some of these proceedings, plaintiffs instituted another action against Fairbanks, Morse & Co., charging it with infringement of the Johnson patent, and also of patent to Fenner, No. 782,496, February, 1905, by another structure known as Sheffield standpipe No. 12. This resulted in a deeree holding Johnson infringed, and Fenner void. Upon appeal from so much of the deeree as held Sheffield No. 12 to infringe Johnson, this court reversed the deeree, with direction to dismiss the bill for want of equity. Fairbanks, Morse & Co. v. American Valve & Meter Co. et al. (C. C. A.) 31 F.(2d) 103.

In the original ease, pursuant to the directions of this court, the District Court entered the usual decree for injunction and accounting, and the cause was referred to the master, before whom there was a long hearing, and complicated accounts submitted, mainly with a view to ascertaining the profits arising from manufacture and sale of Sheffield No. 11.

The master prepared a detailed report of his findings of fact and law, to which both parties filed objections, some of which the master allowed, with the result that he found [871]*871and recommended the recoverable profits to be $60,299.27, together with interest thereon, and found also that the plaintiff in the action had paid out to J. W. R. Bradford & Co., certified public accountants, for services in examining books and records of Fairbanks, Morse & Co., $12,606.74, and that such charge was fair and reasonable, and that plaintiffs were justified in employing the accountants to do that work.

Voluminous exceptions to the report of the master were filed by both sides, all of which were overruled, and a decree was entered March 8, 1926, requiring the defendants in the action to pay plaintiffs, as profits, $60;299.27, with interest thereon of $23)684.-22, and $12,606.74 so paid out for accountant’s fees, together with master’s fees and costs.

1. Plaintiffs’ appeal will first be considered. Their first assignment of error is “that, the court erred in not finding that plaintiffs were entitled to recover the entire profits derived from the sale of ‘complete standpipes,’ amounting to $56,081.05.” This arises out of the fact that the master did not allow the entire profit on sales of “complete standpipes.” The profits allowed were upon that portion which is above the “lower upright,” and not including the levers for operating the valve mechanism and rotating the pipe.

The master found that not all of the profits from the complete standpipe were due to the features embodied in the patents in suit. It seems that during the accounting period there were many sales of so-called “incomplete standpipes” — being that portion above and including the “extension joint.” Such “incompletes” were purchased to be fitted upon structures already installed, which defendants or others had supplied. The parts below the “extension joint” consist of the “lower upright” and the elaborate valve mechanism for controlling the flow of water.

It requires but casual examination of the standpipe and the patents to conclude that the embodiment of the patents is to be found only above the “lower upright.”

In Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Co. v. Wagner Electric & Manufacturing Co., 225 U. S. 604, 32 S. Ct. 691, 694, 56 L. Ed. 1222, 41 L. R. A. (N. S.) 653, it was held that, “Where a patent, though using old elements, gives the entire value to the combination, the plaintiff is entitled to recover all the profits.”

This was followed by this court in Computing Scale Co. v. Toledo Computing Scale Co., 279 F. 648; and also by the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in Flat Slab Patents Co. v. Turner, 285 F. 257. But, where there are parts which do not involve or embody the patent, but to which a portion of the profits is reasonably attributable, a separation and apportionment of the profits, as between those parts which embody the patent and those which do not, should be made. Dowagiac Mfg. Co. v. Minnesota Moline Plow Co., 235 U. S. 641, 35 S. Ct. 221, 59 L. Ed. 398.

The quite frequent sales by defendants of the portion only which embodied the patents —viz., the “incompletes” — not only emphasize the separability of this portion as a commercial entity, but also render the profit on such portion more readily ascertainable, as was in fact determined and found by the master. In determining the profit on sales of “completes” and “incompletes,” the master adopted, as the basis for both, the rate of profit shown to have been realized on the sale of “ineompletes.” We'regard this method as fair to both parties, and entirely unobjectionable.

2. Plaintiffs further insist that they should have been allowed the profits on repair parts furnished by defendants for the entire standpipe, and not have been limited by the master to the profits on repair parts for that portion above the “lower upright.” What has been said respecting the claim of profits for the entire standpipe is applicable, to this contention as well.

3. Plaintiffs complain of the master’s^ computation of profits from the sale of 120' complete standpipes to the government, in 1917 and 1918, upon which the profits were estimated in the same manner as upon other sales of complete standpipes during that time; the contention being that sales to the-government were at a price materially higher than charged to other purchasers of standpipes, and with correspondingly higher profit.

It appears that for these government sales the same method of ascertainment applicable to all sales for the year was adopted.

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Bluebook (online)
34 F.2d 869, 2 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 221, 1929 U.S. App. LEXIS 3321, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fairbanks-morse-co-v-american-valve-meter-co-ca7-1929.