Luckie v. McCall Mfg. Co.

153 So. 2d 311
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedMay 16, 1963
DocketE-112
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 153 So. 2d 311 (Luckie v. McCall Mfg. Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Luckie v. McCall Mfg. Co., 153 So. 2d 311 (Fla. Ct. App. 1963).

Opinion

153 So.2d 311 (1963)

Willis H. LUCKIE and his wife, Pauline P. Luckie, and Luckie Magic Corporation, a Florida corporation, Appellants,
v.
McCALL MFG. CO., Inc., a Florida corporation, Appellee.

No. E-112.

District Court of Appeal of Florida. First District.

May 16, 1963.
Rehearing Denied June 5, 1963.

*312 Daniel F. Hubsch, Jacksonville, for appellants.

Brannon, Brown, Norris & Vocelle, Lake City, for appellee.

STURGIS, Acting Chief Judge.

The appellants, defendants below, bring this interlocutory appeal to review an order of the chancellor denying their motions to dismiss the suit for lack of venue and for failure of the complaint to state a cause of action, and their motion to strike portions of the complaint.

The appellee, McCall Mfg. Co., Inc., brought this suit in Hamilton County, Florida, to impose a constructive trust upon a trade-mark allegedly belonging to plaintiff but federally registered in the name of one or more of the defendants, to enjoin the alleged unlawful use thereof by defendant, and for other relief.

The verified complaint charges that the natural defendants, Mr. and Mrs. Luckie, became partners with Mr. and Mrs. E.J. McCall in the manufacture and sale of roach, ant and mouse poison under the mark or trade name "LUCKIE-MACK" superimposed above the wording "KING FLA." on a distinctive label which had a yellow background, a wide red border, and three wide red stripes thereon; that in January 1959 said partners formed "Luckie-McCall Corporation" which took over and operated the former partnership business under the same mark, trade name, and distinctive paper label; that a disagreement came about between the stockholders, resulting in legal proceedings in the course of which, after disposing of certain corporate property, all the remaining assets of the corporation, "including * * * the raw materials to be used in the manufacture of additional products and the containers, bottles, labels, etc. * * *" were sold to said E.J. McCall who thereafter sold the same to the plaintiff, McCall Mfg. Co., Inc.; that while said former suit was pending, the individual defendants to this suit, Mr. and Mrs. Luckie, formed the defendant corporation, Luckie Magic Corporation, which is the alter ego of said individual defendants; that pursuant to said purchase from E.J. McCall, the plaintiff corporation, McCall Mfg. Co., Inc., has as a matter of right used said trade names, marks and-labels; that the defendants have without right copied and imitated the same, and

"have been, and are, selling and advertising said roach, ant and mouse poison with copied and imitated paper labels and trade names and marks, as aforesaid, in Hamilton County, Florida, and surrounding Florida Counties."

The complaint duly states a cause of action for relief in equity. It is not so inartfully *313 drawn as to be subject to dismissal on the ground that it fails to conform to accepted standards and forms of proper pleading. The motion to strike portions of it was properly denied, hence the remaining question for determination is whether venue lies in Hamilton County.

The undisputed proofs before the trial court on the question of venue establish that the natural defendants are residents of Dade County, Florida, that the corporate defendant has its principal place of business in said county and does not conduct any manufacturing operations or place the labels on the product in Hamilton County. As stated, one purpose of the suit is to enjoin unfair trade practices allegedly being committed in Hamilton County by the use of plaintiff's trade name, marks and labels in the marketing of defendants' products in that and adjoining counties, and this allegation stands unrefuted for the purpose of this appeal.

The ordinary remedies for trade-mark infringement and unfair competition include equitable relief by injunction and an accounting of profits. Where a competitor in dressing his goods has with intent to deceive so imitated the goods of another that the public cannot generally easily distinguish them, and retail dealers can palm them off as the goods of the plaintiff, an injunction may be granted against the sale thereof.

The above stated allegations of the verified bill of complaint are sufficient to show that a cause of action for injunctive relief accrued in Hamilton County and in view of Section 46.04, Florida Statutes, F.S.A., is proper to be tried in the Circuit Court of that county. In so holding, we adopt the view that under the venue statutes of this state a cause of action to enjoin unfair competition accrues to the injured party and may be maintained in any county in which occurs an overt act constituting unfair competition, coupled with an apparent intent to continue the violation of plaintiff's rights. In this case the overt act is the alleged placing into the channels of commerce in Hamilton County of the articles offered for sale in violation of plaintiff's rights.

While the manufacture of the article and the placing thereon of the labels in Dade County with intent to market the same might in itself constitute a sufficient basis upon a suit in that county to enjoin the threatened invasion of plaintiff's rights, such does not deprive the Hamilton County court of venue in such suit, which arises out of the independent overt act committed in Hamilton County.

We are not unmindful of the rule in the federal courts as laid down in Thomas Kerfoot & Co. v. United Drug Co., D.C., 38 F.2d 671, which is cited by Callman in his treatise on Unfair Competition and Trade-marks as footnote 40 to the following proposition stated on pages 1911-1912 of the text, 2nd Ed., Vol. IV:

"In a suit to restrain trade-mark infringement and unfair competition, the fact that defendant sold in interstate commerce, and in the district in which suit was brought and the fact that many acts of unfair competition occurred there does not characterize the suit as one of local nature nor does it deprive the corporation of the right to insist that it be sued in its home district."

The decision in the Kerfoot case turned, however, exclusively on the provisions of the federal venue act (28 U.S.C.A. § 112) which, referring to the federal courts, provides, inter alia, that "no civil suit shall be brought in any district court against any person by any original process or proceeding in any other district than that whereof he is an inhabitant." The distinction between the federal and Florida venue acts is obvious, and the cited case lends no comfort to appellant.

We have also considered the quotation from Standard Encyclopedia of Procedure, Vol. XXV, p. 858, as contained in McMullen *314 v. McMullen, 122 So.2d 626 (Fla.App. 1960), reading:

"`Actions were deemed transitory when the transaction on which they were founded might have taken place anywhere, and local, when the transaction was necessarily local, and could have happened only in a particular place. The unerring test by which it may be determined whether a cause of action is local or transitory, inheres in the nature of the subject of the injury as differing from the means whereby or the place at which the injury was inflicted. The distinction is not between actions in rem and actions in personam. And the origin of the right of action is immaterial."
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Bluebook (online)
153 So. 2d 311, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/luckie-v-mccall-mfg-co-fladistctapp-1963.