Perolin Co. of America v. Young

118 P. 1, 65 Wash. 300, 1911 Wash. LEXIS 918
CourtWashington Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 13, 1911
DocketNo. 9263
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 118 P. 1 (Perolin Co. of America v. Young) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Washington Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Perolin Co. of America v. Young, 118 P. 1, 65 Wash. 300, 1911 Wash. LEXIS 918 (Wash. 1911).

Opinion

Crow, J.

— Two actions on promissory notes, originally commenced by the Perolin Company of America, have been consolidated herein, one against Angus W. Young and the Perolin Company of the North Pacific, and the other against Young individually, the issues being the same. The action against Young was upon his ten promissory notes for $150 each, payable to plaintiff, dated August 1.4, 1907, and falling due at different dates. The notes in the other action were executed by the Perolin Company of the North Pacific, and Angus W. Young, as renewals of notes originally executed by Young alone. The defendants pleaded failure of consideration and damages. The trial court made findings in favor of the defendants, and dismissed the consolidated action. The plaintiff has appealed.

The issues being substantially the same, we will discuss those arising between the appellant and the respondent Young. For some time prior to the execution of the contract hereinafter mentioned, the respondent Young had been manufacturing and selling a sweeping compound under the [302]*302trade-name “So-Clean,” doing so under a license from one B. Singer of Chicago, who had copyrighted the trade-name of “So-Clean” and was the owner of patents on certain formulae for sweeping compounds. While Young was thus engaged, the Perolin Company of America, a corporation in Chicago, Illinois, purchased the Singer patents, subject to Singer’s outstanding contracts with respondent and others, and itself copyrighted the trade-name of “Perolin.” Thereupon appellant, by its letter of June 18, 1907, notified Young that it had succeeded to Singer’s rights, and suggested that Young enter into negotiations with a view of discontinuing the manufacture of “So-Clean” under the Singer patents and engaging in the manufacture of German Perolin, which appellant was manufacturing under its formulae. In this letter appellant in part said:

“Perolin is a product very much superior to So-Clean, made absolutely under a different formula which does not infringe the Singer patents in any particular and it is so much superior to all other sweeping compounds on the market that it practically has the call and preference over all of them in this section of the country. The reason for this is simply because the German Perolin which we are manufacturing is purely a chemical preparation and possesses features that no other sweeping compound has and consumers prefer it to any other even at a greatly increased price.”

Young replied, expressing his willingness to negotiate, and thereupon J. I. Kopperl, appellant’s manager, met Young in Seattle, Washington; and on August It, 1907, a written contract was entered into, whereby the Perolin Company of America, party of the first part, agreed to grant and sell Young, party of the second part, all rights to manufacture and sell sweeping compounds under appellant’s patents and its trade-name of Perolin, in Washington, Oregon, and Alaska; to give Young all its secret formulae, copies of its printed matter, testimonials and advertisements; to furnish Young raw materials at cost when needed; to protect Young in his exclusive right to manufacture Perolin [303]*303and use the name of Perolin; to protect the Singer patents from infringements; and to prosecute any extensive infringers thereof. Young, as party, of the second part, agreed to organize a subsidiary corporation, under the name of Perolin Company of the North Pacific; to pay the party of the first part a royalty of fifteen cents per hundred pounds on all sweeping compounds manufactured and sold by him under the name of Perolin; to surrender his contracts with Singer; and to pay $3,000 in monthly installments, beginning with January 20th, 1908, for which sum he gave his promissory notes, including the ten notes in the action against him. Section 4 of the contract, the one most material to the issues herein, reads as follows:

“The first party will furnish the second party with all of its secret formulas and data, without reservation, for the use of the second party in the manufacture of Perolin, and likewise will furnish the second party copies of all its printed matter and of all newspaper advertisements, testimonial letters, and all like matter now used or which may be used in the exploitation and sale of Perolin, for the information and convenience of the second party and to facilitate advertising and selling in the second party’s territory. . . .”

Each party has partially performed. Appellant assigned to respondent its patents, including the Singer patents, with the exclusive right to manufacture and sell sweeping compounds of Perolin, in Washington, Oregon, and Alaska, furnished him copies of its advertising matter, and allowed him to use its trade-name of Perolin on all sweeping compounds manufactured and sold by him. Respondent surrendered to appellant his contracts with Singer, ceased using the trade-name “So-Clean,” organized a corporation known as Perolin Company of the North Pacific, used the name Perolin on all sweeping compounds manufactured and sold by him, paid royalties to appellant, and paid $750 principal on his notes.

Respondent contends that the consideration for his notes has substantially failed because of appellant’s neglect and refusal to give him its formulae as agreed. He concedes his pay[304]*304ment of royalties and a portion of the notes, but insists that he repeatedly demanded the formulae, which he regarded as especially valuable, and asserts he continued the performance of his contract because he desired to obtain them. He finally refused further payments, insisting appellant had failed to perform its contract, and has since manufactured and sold a sweeping compound called “Cedarine,” which he claims he perfected. In his answer he not only pleaded failure of consideration, but also counterclaimed for heavy damages sustained from loss of profits in his business. The trial judge rejected evidence offered to sustain this counterclaim, upon .the theory that his alleged loss of profits was too speculative and uncertain an element to constitute a provable counterclaim. This was error prejudicial to respondent, of which appellant cannot complain, and upon which respondent has failed to predicate any cross-appeal. The contract necessarily contemplated profits to be made by respondent from the sale of Perolin manufactured from the secret formulae. Substantial damages arising from the loss of such contemplated profits are recoverable. Federal Iron and Brass Bed Co. v. Hock, 42 Wash. 668, 85 Pac. 418; Church v. Wilkeson-Tripp Co., 58 Wash. 262, 108 Pac. 596, 109 Pac. 113, 137 Am. St. 1059.

When in Seattle in June, 1907, Kopperl, appellant’s manager, verbally suggested to Young a certain formula for preliminary work in manufacturing sweeping compounds. Later a more complete statement of the same formula was made by letter. On the trial respondent contended that these-suggestions, which included sand, were not the true Perolin formulae. In support of this contention, he introduced advertising matter issued by appellant containing the following and similar statements:

“It (Perolin) is the only sweeping compound that is strictly granular — that has a natural and healthful product for a basis — that possesses chemically curative properties, [305]*305the only one with neither sand nor injurious oils in its composition.”

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Bluebook (online)
118 P. 1, 65 Wash. 300, 1911 Wash. LEXIS 918, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/perolin-co-of-america-v-young-wash-1911.