Kingsley v. Jacoby

20 N.Y.S. 46, 28 Abb. N. Cas. 451
New York Supreme Court·Decided June 15, 1892·Published·Cited by 2 cases

Opinion

Truax, J.

There is no doubt that the defendant intended to represent to the public that his cigars were in some way connected with the hotel known as “Holland House,’’ in this city; and that the suggestion that the cigars were called “Holland House Bouquets,” because some of the tobacco of which they were made was purchased from Holland houses engaged in the tobacco business, is a disingenuous afterthought. In fact, in the defendant’s letter to the plaintiffs written in February, 1892, he said that “the well-known and justly-deserved popularity of your hotel has served as an inducement for me to apply its name, so widely known, to one of my new and best brands of cigars.” At the time the defendant registered' “the Holland House Bouquets” plaintiffs had not opened the “Holland House”- for business, but at [47] that time the building was in process of construction, and it was well known in the city of Hew York as. “Holland House.”

In Deiz v. Lamb, 6 Rob. (N. Y.) 537, the plaintiff, who was the proprietor of the “Prescott House” in Hew York city, moved for an injunction to restrain the defendant from placing the words “Prescott House” on his coaches. Monell, J., in granting motion, after citing Howard v. Henriques, 3 Sandf. 725, and Marsh v. Billings, 7 Cush. 322, and other cases, says, in his opinion, at pages 539 and 540: “And in Howard v. Henriques, under an analogous state of facts, this court restrained, by injunction, the defendant from using the words ‘Irving- House’ upon his coaches and badges of his servants. * * * The eases to which I have referred, as well as Christy v. Murphy, 12 How. Pr. 77, are an answer to the proposition of the defendant’s counsel that the plaintiff must establish in a court of law that he has sustained injury, before he can invoke the aid or protection of a court of equity. In this state, courts of equity will always interfere to prevent wrongs, while courts of law can only give redress after the wrongs have been committed.”

In Howard v. Henriques, 3 Sandf. 725, where the plaintiff was the proprietor of an hotel in Hew York city, known as “Irving House” and as “Irving Hotel, ” it was held that he had a right to use those names, to the exclusion of other persons in the same city or town; and accordingly the defendant was restrained, by injunction, from using the name “Irving Hotel.” It was urged, amongother things, on behalf of the defendant, that the names "Irving House” and “Irving Hotel” were not the subject of appropriation as applied to an hotel; that the principle upon which trade-marks and other similar rights had been protected was applicable alone to personal property, to manufactured articles, to such things as were necessarily movable, and in reference to which frauds could be practiced without being easily detected. Judge Campbell, in disposing of this objection, says, at pages 727 and 728: “Upon the second objection of the defendant, I, at first, had some doubt, which, by a more careful consideration and by conference with my associates, has been removed. We think that the principle of the rule is the same, to whatever subject it may be applied, and that a party will be protected in the use of a name which he has appropriated, and by his skill rendered valuable, whether the same is upon articles of personal property which he may manufacture, or applied to an hotel where he has built up a prosperous business. We are not disposed to interfere with the lawful pursuits of any one. Every man may and ought to be permitted to pursue a lawful calling in his own wayi provided he does not encroach upon the rights of his neighbor or the public good. But he must not, by any deceitful or other practice, impose upon the public, and must not, by dressing himself in another man’s garments, and by assuming another man’s name, endeavor to deprive that man of his own individuality, and thus despoil him of the gains to which, by his industry and skill, he is fairly entitled. To make the application: If one man has, by superior knowledge, made his hotel desirable for the traveler, and caused its name to become popular throughout the land, another man- ought not to be permitted to assume the same name in the same town, and thus deprive him who first appropriated the name of some portion of the fruits of that good-will which honestly belong to him alone. It can hardly require argument to show that the use by the defendants of the same name for their hotel interferes with the plaintiff’s business, and the fact is fully established by the affidavits. Such a result, under the circumstances, would seem to be inevitable. If the defendants may use the name, others may do the same, and the public would be inconvenienced by the confusion which would necessarily arise. There is no hardship in enforcing the rule against these defendants. There is an abundance of names by which they can designate their hotel, and if they can, by their own efforts, by their skill and careful attention in building up a profitable business, succeed in causing their hotel to become known and popular through[48] out the land, they will in turn be entitled to protection against those who may seek to deprive them of-the advantages which they may thus honestly acquire. The three of my associates, the chief justice and Justices Duer and Mason, who were present at the argument together with Justice Sandeord, who-granted the injunction, concur with me in the opinion that the injunction must stand.”

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Kingsley v. Jacoby, 20 N.Y.S. 46, 28 Abb. N. Cas. 451 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1892).

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