McDearmott Commission Co. v. Board of Trade

146 F. 961, 7 L.R.A.N.S. 889, 1906 U.S. App. LEXIS 4164
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedJuly 9, 1906
DocketNo. 2,401
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 146 F. 961 (McDearmott Commission Co. v. Board of Trade) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
McDearmott Commission Co. v. Board of Trade, 146 F. 961, 7 L.R.A.N.S. 889, 1906 U.S. App. LEXIS 4164 (8th Cir. 1906).

Opinion

VAN DEVANTER, Circuit judge.

This is an appeal from an interlocutory order granting an injunction restraining the appellants from acquiring and using certain continuous market quotations without the appellee’s consent.

Recognizing- that these quotations as collected by the appellee in its exchange are its property, that while they remain such it has the right to control their acquisition and use by others, and that wrongful invasions of this right may be restrained in equity (Board of Trade v. Christie, 198 U. S. 236, 25 Sup. Ct. 637, 49 L. Ed. 1031; Board of Trade v. Cella Commission Co. [C. C. A.] 145 Fed. 28), the appellants rest their opposition to the injunction upon the solé claim that they do not obtain the quotations until they have been given to the public with the appellee’s knowledge and approval, and have ceased to be private property. In brief, the facts are these: Under an arrangement between the appellee and certain telegraph companies, which act as distributing agents, the quotations — that is, those wherein the price of any commodity is quoted oftener than at intervals of 10 minutes — are communicated by telegraph to commercial exchanges, brokers, and others throughout the country upon the express condition that they shall be used only in the private and individual business of the receiver; that they shall not be sold, communi[962]*962cated, or otherwise given to news distributors or others; that no one shall be allowed to directly or indirectly take them from the office of the receiver, or to make a wire connection with the instrument or wires over which they are received; and that a failure to strictly comply with any of these requirements' shall terminate the receiver’s right to a continuance of the service. By reason of a charge which is made for communicating the quotations in this way, their collection and distribution’ are a source of substantial profit or gain to the appellee. Many of those to whom they are so communicated immediately post them upon blackboards in their places of business as a convenient means of stimulating and facilitating trade. These places of business, including the commercial exchanges, are maintained by private owners for the transaction of private business, and members of the public enter, not as a matter of common right, but only by the license of the owners, and usually for purposes in connection with their business. The posting seems to be with the knowledge and approval of the appellee, but not with any assent that the quotations may be copied and taken away or reproduced and used elsewhere. The appellants are brokers and commission merchants at Kansas City, Mo. In some systematic way, not satisfactorily disclosed, but confessedly without the consent of the appellee, they obtain the quotations immediately upon their being posted by those . who rightfully receive them. They then display them upon blackboards in their own offices, and use them in their own business in like manner as do their competitors, who pay for them. The time intervening after the quotations are posted by others and before they are displayed in the appellants’ offices is sometimes five minutes, but generally is much less.

It is the' contention of the appellants that in the circumstances described the posting of the quotations by those who rightfully receive them is a-general publication, and instantly operates as a surrender or dedication to the public of the proprietary fights of the appellee. The Circuit Court held otherwise (143 Fed. 188), resting its decision largely upon the reasoning and conclusion of the Supreme Court in Board of Trade v. Christie, supra, where it is said:

“The plaintiff does not lose its rights by communicating the result to persons, even if many, in confidential relations to itself, under a contract not' to 'make it public, and strangers to the trust will be restrained from getting at the knowledge by inducing a breach of trust, and using knowledge obtained by such breach [citing cases]. The publication insisted on in some of the arguments were publications in breach of contract, and do not affect the plaintiff’s rights. Time is of the essence in matters like this, and it fairly may be said that, if the contracts with the plaintiff are kept, the information will not become public property until the plaintiff has gained its reward. A priority of a few minutes probably is enough.”

While that case in principle goes far toward sustaining the ruling of the Circuit Court, we think it must be conceded to the appellants that it does not determine the precise question now presented, that is, whether the posting of the quotations in the circumstances described is such a general publication as to make them public property. The question is not, however, altogether new. It was presented and [963]*963determined adversely to the appellants’ contention in Board of Trade v. Hadden-Krull Co. (C. C.) 109 Fed. 705, where it was said by Judge Seaman:

“These market quotations are peculiar in their property use and value, and, without immediate transmission to the customer, so that he receives them simultaneously with all other customers, and before their publication generally, they possess no purchase value. To make them available, it is essential to liave the quotations written or printed in some form for the information of all entitled to tlieir use; and it appears here that they were in some instances so furnished in the ‘ticker,’ and in others were placed on a blackboard in the office of the customer. No reason appears for finding a publication in the one method if not in the other, and I am of opinion that neither constitutes a dedication to the public while limited to the use and office of the customer.”

Older and more frequent application of the principle underlying that decision is found in the cases defining the common-law rights of an author in his literary or dramatic composition. Thus a professor of a university, who delivers orally in his classroom lectures which are his own composition, does not communicate them to the public, so as to entitle one who hears them, or another, to print and circulate them without his permission. 2 Story, Eq. Jur. §§ 943, 949; Abernethy v. Hutchinson, 1 H. & T. 28; Caird v. Sime, E. R. 12 App. Cas. 326; Bartlette v. Crittenden, 2 Fed. Cas. 981, No. 1,082; New Jersey State Dental Society v. Dentacura Co. (N. J. Eq.) 41 Atl. 672; Id. (N. J. Err. & App.) 43 Atl. 1098. And an author of a drama or play, who permits another to represent it upon the stage, does not surrender or dedicate it to the public, so as to entitle one who attends its representation, or another, to print and publish it, or to represent it upon the stage, without the author’s permission. 2 Story, Eq. Jur. § 950; Macklin v. Richardson, Amb. 694, 2 Eng. Rul. Cas. 66; Turner v. Robinson, 10 Irish Ch. 121, 510; Roberts v. Myers, 20 Fed. Cas. 898, No. 11,906; Boucicault v. Fox, 3 Fed. Cas. 977, No. 1,691; Crowe v. Aiken, 6 Eed. Cas. 904, No. 3,441; Tompkins v. Halleck, 133 Mass. 32, 43 Am. Rep. 480; Palmer v. Dewitt, 47 N. Y. 532, 7 Am. Rep. 480. In the last case it is said:

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Public Affairs Associates, Inc. v. Rickover
177 F. Supp. 601 (District of Columbia, 1959)
Pittsburgh Athletic Co. v. KQV Broadcasting Co.
24 F. Supp. 490 (W.D. Pennsylvania, 1938)
Waring v. WDAS Broadcasting Station, Inc.
194 A. 631 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1937)
Arrant v. Georgia Casualty Co.
102 So. 447 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1924)
Moore v. New York Cotton Exchange
296 F. 61 (Second Circuit, 1923)
Moore v. New York Cotton Exchange
291 F. 681 (S.D. New York, 1923)
Board of Trade v. Price
213 F. 336 (Eighth Circuit, 1914)
Board of Trade v. Tucker
221 F. 300 (W.D. New York, 1913)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
146 F. 961, 7 L.R.A.N.S. 889, 1906 U.S. App. LEXIS 4164, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mcdearmott-commission-co-v-board-of-trade-ca8-1906.