R. M. C. Corp. v. Genco, Inc.

71 N.E.2d 189, 330 Ill. App. 192, 1946 Ill. App. LEXIS 209
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedDecember 31, 1946
DocketGen. No. 43,572
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 71 N.E.2d 189 (R. M. C. Corp. v. Genco, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
R. M. C. Corp. v. Genco, Inc., 71 N.E.2d 189, 330 Ill. App. 192, 1946 Ill. App. LEXIS 209 (Ill. Ct. App. 1946).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Scanlan

delivered the opinion of the court.

On April 16, 1934, plaintiff, then known as Rock-Ola Manufacturing Corporation, filed its complaint against Genco, Inc., a corporation, and Louis W. Gensburg, Meyer Gensburg and David Gensburg, its officers, who owned the entire stock of the corporation, which pleading alleged that plaintiff manufactured certain pin-games simulating baseball and called “World Series”; that thereafter defendants manufactured a pin-game simulating baseball called “Official Baseball”; that defendants’ game and the advertising thereof constituted unfair competition under the National Recovery Act of 1934 and at common law. The complaint sought a temporary injunction to restrain the manufacture and advertising of defendants’ game. After <a hearing a temporary injunction was entered, on April 27,1934, restraining defendants

“1. From selling the machine called ‘Official Baseball ’ through the means of advertisement or written statements heretofore published by them;

“2. From selling, distributing or delivering any of said machines on orders heretofore received by them, or renewals of such orders, by reason of such unfair competition and such advertising and publication;

“3. From advertising or publishing, either directly or indirectly, in any manner, the manufacture, sale or distribution of said machine as at present constituted or with any changes therein which do not substantially affect its present form. Nothing in this clause contained shall prohibit the manufacture, sale and distribution of said machine without the advertising and, publication hereby restrained.” (Italics ours.)

Not until April 4,1935, was a motion to dissolve the temporary injunction filed. This motion was not pressed. On June 13,1935, a final decree was entered, which decreed “that the temporary injunction heretofore issued by this Court be and the same is hereby made permanent and perpetual.” Defendants prosecuted an appeal to this court and while the cause was pending heré the National Recovery Act was held unconstitutional (Schechter v. U. S., 295 U. S. 495) and plaintiff then abandoned the charge that defendants violated the said Act, and we were called upon to determine only one question, viz: Were the defendants guilty of unfair competition at common law? On February 9,1937, we reversed the decree of the trial court and our mandate provided: “Decree reversed, and cause remanded with directions to dismiss plaintiff’s complaint for want of equity, at plaintiff’s costs, that court [Superior court of Cook county] retaining jurisdiction for the assessment of damages for the wrongful issuance of the preliminary and permanent injunctions. ’ ’ Thereafter the trial court dismissed the complaint and on March 4, 1938, defendants filed a suggestion of damages, in which they claimed that as the result of the temporary and permanent injunctions they suffered the following damages: $25,000 for attorneys’ fees, $25,000 for expenses of witnesses and documentary evidence, and $450,000 for loss of profits. Plaintiff’s motion to strike the suggestion of damages was overruled and after plaintiff filed an answer denying the allegations in defendants’ suggestion of damages, the cause was referred to a master in chancery and a very lengthy hearing was had before that officer. He filed a report in which he found that the equities were with defendants, that they were entitled to the relief prayed for in their suggestion of damages, and he made the following recommendations: That a decree be entered in conformity with his findings of fact and conclusions of law, “assessing damages against the plaintiff in the sum of $104,334.00, and in favor of the defendants by reason of the wrongful issuance of the preliminary and permanent injunctions, to-wit:

‘ ‘ 1. The sum of $90,580.00 for loss of profits on sales of ‘Official Base Ball’ games which defendants would have derived, received and enjoyed except for said preliminary and permanent injunctions;
“2. The sum of $12,750.00 expended by defendants for solicitors ’ fees and charges in and about procuring the dissolution of said injunctions ;
“3. The sum of $1004.00 paid by defendants for taking and transcribing the testimony of witnesses at the hearings in the original proceedings, in and about procuring the dissolution of said injunctions. ’ ’

Plaintiff appeals from a decree that followed the recommendations of the master.

Defendants have filed a cross-appeal in which they contend that the damages assessed by the. master and confirmed by the trial court were inadequate and that if there is a reversal and remandment of this case' it should be with directions to assess defendants’ damages in an amount “between $150,000 and $500,000.” Upon the former appeal we reversed and remanded the decree with directions to the trial court “to dismiss plaintiff’s complaint for want of equity, at plaintiff’s costs, that court retaining jurisdiction for the assessment of damages for the wrongful issuance of the preliminary and permanent injunctions.” The foregoing italicized words were inadvertently and improperly used in our judgment order. We will later in this opinion refer to this matter.

Plaintiff contends that damages may be allowed only on the dissolution of a temporary injunction; that under Section 12 of the Injunction Act, upon a suggestion of damages, the court at most can allow only such damages as were necessarily incurred in procuring a dissolution of a temporary injunction, but it cannot allow damages that are sustained in the general defense of the suit. The only authority for the assessment of damages upon the dissolution of an injunction is Section 12 of the Injunction Act (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1943, Ch. 69, Par. 12 [Jones Ill. Stats. Ann. 109.360]), which reads as follows:

“In all cases where an injunction is dissolved by any court of chancery in this state, the court, after dissolving such injunction, and before finally disposing of the suit, upon the party claiming damages by reason of such injunction suggesting, in writing, the nature and amount thereof, shall hear evidence and assess such damages as the nature of the case may require, and to equity appertain, to the party damnified by such injunction, and may award execution to collect the same: Provided, a failure so to assess damages shall not operate as a bar to an action upon the injunction bond.”

In Milligan v. Nelson, 188 Ill. 139,141, the court said:

“It is well settled in this State that, on suggestions, damages will not be allowed for services rendered in the general defense of the suit, but only such as have been incurred for the purpose of getting rid of an injunction on a motion to dissolve, and not upon final hearing. In Jevne v. Osgood, 57 Ill. 340, on page 346 we say: ‘ The design of the statute is not that the defendant shall, where the injunction is dissolved, recover his attorney’s fees for all that has béen or may be done in the case. To give the statute such an unreasonable construction would render it an instrument of great oppression. It was only intended to reimburse the defendant for moneys which he has paid or for which he has become liable on the motion to dissolve.’ And in Elder v. Sabin, 66 Ill.

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Bluebook (online)
71 N.E.2d 189, 330 Ill. App. 192, 1946 Ill. App. LEXIS 209, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/r-m-c-corp-v-genco-inc-illappct-1946.