Johnson v. Brafford

70 S.W. 193, 114 Ky. 96, 1902 Ky. LEXIS 137
Court of Appeals of Kentucky·Decided October 30, 1902·Published·Cited by 3 cases

Opinion

Opinion of tiie court by

JUDGE O’REAR

— Affirming. .

Appellant filed this suit in the quarterly court, oí Jefferson county to recover $200 damages of the defendant, J. H. Brafford and “ — •— Brumfield,” so styled in the caption. The cause of action asserted in the petition was: Plaintiff alleged that J. H. Brafford had sold and assigned to him an exclusive right to sell a patented article in Jefferson county, this State. Plaintiff alleged “that after-wards the defendants J. IT. Brafford and Brumfield, as partners, in disregard of said plaintiff’s right, sold and erected the said patented article to divers and various parties,” to plaintiff’s damage as stated. Summons on this petition directed, to Jefferson county was executed on O. Brumfield by the sheriff of Jefferson county. Brumfield failed to answer, and the petition was taken as true. Brafford claims to have resided in Fayette county, and summons was served on him in Fayette county. He entered a special appearance in the Jefferson quarterly court, and moved to quash the summons that was served upon him by the sheriff of Fayette. He also filed a special demurrer to the petition on these grounds: “(1) Because the Jefferson quarterly court has no jurisdiction of the person of J. H. Brafford. (2) Because the Jefferson quarterly court has no jurisdiction of the cause of action alleged against the defendant O. Brumfield.” The quarterly court sustained,the motion and demurrer. The plaintiff failing to take other steps, the cause was dismissed as to [99] Brafford. The plaintiff appealed to the Jefferson circuit coart, which also sustained the demurrer and the motion to dismiss, and plaintiff has appealed here.

The petition at best is only an attempt to recover from Brafford damages alleged to have been sustained by the plaintiff because of Brafford’s breach of a contract between him and plaintiff. Brumfield is not alleged to have been a, party to that contract; therefore, so far as this case is an action upon ihe contract, Brumfield was not properly joined as a party defendant.- This is a transitory action, and, under 'section 78 of the Civil Code of Practice, “may be brought in any county in which the defendant, or in which one of several defendants, who may be properly joined as such in the action, resides or is summoned.” Brumfield was improperly joined as a party defendant, manifestly for the purpose of conferring a jurisdiction upon the courts of Jefferson county against Brafford that the law did not authorize. The judgment quashing the service of process upon this ground was right. Basye v. Brown 78 Ky., 553. Section 113 of subsection 2 of the Civil Code of Practice allows a pleading to contain statements of as many causes oí action as there may be grounds for in behalf of the pleader. But section 85, Id., provides that several causes of action may be united only in event each affects all the parties, and the action may be brought in the same county, etc. If there is a cause of action stated at all against Brumfield, or even imperfectly stated against him, it is to recover damages because of his infringement or interference with the plaintiff’s exclusive right to manufacture and sell a patented article, under the laws of the United State®. Suits for infringements or interferences with, or to vacate, or to repeal, patents must be brought in (he United States courts. However, the State courts [100] liavo jurisdiction to enforce contracts relating; to patents, 'such as contracts to assign, or covenants contained in contracts for the use of patented articles1, as well as of actions' to recover damages for the breach of such contracts by parties thereto. Sim. Pat. Law, 240-242; Mitchell v. Tilghman, 19 Wall, 278, 22 L. Ed., 125; Billings v. Ames, 32 Mo., 272; Marsh v. Nichols, Shepard & Co., 140 U. S., 353, 11 Sup. Ct, 798, 35 L. Ed., 413. So far as the petition attempted to allege a cause of action against Bradford, it was for the breach of the contract' concerning a patent, the subject-matter oí) which action was within the jurisdiction of the Jefferson quarterly court; but, so far as the petition attempted to allege a causie of action against Brumfield, it. was, if anything, for an interference with, or infringement of, the exclusive right of an assignee of a patented article to manufacture and sell same; therefore was an act exclusively within the jurisdiction of the federal courts. In Randall v. Shropshire, 4 Metc., 327, this court held that where two or more causes of action were improperly joined under a section of the old Code (section 111, which is the same as section 83 of the present Civil Code of Practice), and service was had upon one of the defendants in the county where the action was begun, the court would not take jurisdiction under section 106 of the old Code, similar to section 78 of the present Civil Code of Practice, in a1 transitory action of defendants served out of the county, who were not proper parties to the cause of action set up against the defendants summoned in the county. So it follows that, in any view of the case, the quarterly court and the circuit eourl ruled correctly in sustaining the motion to quash the summons.

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Johnson v. Brafford, 70 S.W. 193, 114 Ky. 96, 1902 Ky. LEXIS 137 (Ky. Ct. App. 1902).

70 S.W. 193 (Johnson v. Brafford) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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