Sampson & Murdock Co. v. Seaver-Radford Co.

129 F. 761, 1904 U.S. App. LEXIS 4772
CourtU.S. Circuit Court for the District of Massachusetts
DecidedApril 22, 1904
DocketNo. 1,937
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 129 F. 761 (Sampson & Murdock Co. v. Seaver-Radford Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Massachusetts primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sampson & Murdock Co. v. Seaver-Radford Co., 129 F. 761, 1904 U.S. App. LEXIS 4772 (circtdma 1904).

Opinion

PIALE, District Judge

(after stating the facts). In this case, after a full hearing of the parties and their witnesses, the master has made an ample, detailed, and complete report, embodying a careful analysis of the testimony. We have copied this report in full, as it, with the bill in equity, constitutes the record; and so we need not recite its details.

The master has found that the damage to the complainant, by publication of the defendant’s book, will be, in the loss of the sale of its copyrighted book, a sum not exceeding $450. He finds further that the damages to the complainant’s business which will result from the publication of a rival directory, such as the defendant’s book, will be much greater, and will be of such a nature that they cannot be estimated at law, and will be in that sense irreparable. He further finds that the defendant has expended in compiling, printing, and binding its proposed directory between $35,000 and $40,000; that the issue of the injunction prayed for by the complainant will probably result in the total loss of this investment; that the advertisements inserted in the book have been inserted under a contract providing for payment when the book is published, and the total amount so paid for advertising is many thousand dollars; that the book, if published, will be of substantial value. He states the leading question of law which arises in the case, namely: Is it lawful, in the preparation of a diiectory, to copy, verify, check, and correct copyrighted information, with intent to reproduce it, save as corrected, in a competing book? And he says that this question is one which does not appear to be settled by any express and controlling decision. He then refers to the leading English and [771]*771American cases, and concludes that, in his opinion, none of the information incorporated in the defendant’s book by means of “drawing questions,” whether settled or not, can be published without violating the complainant’s copyright. He further finds that there has been an infringement, whatever may be the decision on the above question.

Since the presentation of this report, our attention is called to Dun v. International Mercantile Agency (C. C.) 127 Fed. 173, a case just decided, in which Judge Lacombe says:

“It is not disputed that defendant made use of complainant’s book in preparing its own publications. Thanks to such use, it discovered the names of individuals, firms, and corporations engaged in business, and therefore desirable for inclusion in its book, which names had apparently not been discovered by the investigations of defendant’s own canvassers, nor found in some other publication. The names thus obtained from complainant’s book aggregated certainly hundreds, possibly thousands. Was this an unfair use of the complainant’s book? Had this question been presented to this court a year ago, the answer might not improbably have been in the affirmative. Such use of another’s compilation was approved in Moffatt v. Gill, 86 Law Times Rep. 405, but that decision was not controlling here, and for reasons assigned in Colliery Engineering Co. v. Ewald (C. C., Oct. 9, 1903) 126 Fed. 843, it was thought that its conclusions were harsh and inequitable. Nevertheless, propositions which work hardship to the individual are sometimes sustained on grounds of public policy, and the opinion of the Court of Appeals of this Circuit in Thompson Co. v. American Lawbook Co. (July, 1903) 122 Fed. 922 [59 C. C. A. 148, 62 L. R. A. 607], expressly approves the doctrine of Moffatt v. Gill. In view of that decision, which is, of course, controlling here, injunction cannot be granted upon the undisputed facts.”

It will be seen that this case, which is the latest American authority, approves and confirms the doctrine of Moffatt v. Gill, in which the court said:

“You cannot, where another man has compiled a directory, simply take his sheets, and reprint them as your own; but you are entitled, taking the sheets with you, to go and see whether the existing facts concur with the description in the sheets, and, if you do that, you may publish the result as your own.”

See, also, Pike v. Nicholas, L. R. 5 Ch. 251, and other cases cited and commented on in Coppinger on Copyrights (3d Ed.) p. 201.

It seems to us that there is strong reason for holding that the publisher of a new directory has a right to take an old directory, and be guided by it to original sources of information, and that if, so guided, he goes to those sources of information and obtains facts, he may publish those facts, even though they consist of names and addresses which are identical with those published by the old directory. But upon this motion for a temporary injunction it is not necessary, nor fitting, for the court to pass upon this question. The master has wisely reported that it is not conclusively settled. We have pointed out also that he has found that there has been infringement, and that the damage to the complainant from the publication of the defendant’s work may be, in a sense, irreparable. But these findings, if sustained by the court, do not necessarily lead us to the conclusion that an unlimited interlocutory injunction should be granted. We have pointed out also the finding with reference to the effect upon the defendant if the injunction is granted as prayed for.

Jt is the business of a court of equity to inquire not only whether serious and irreparable damage is to be done to the complainant if the tem[772]*772porary injunction is refused, but also to inquire whether or not the injury done to the defendant by the granting of an injunction will be disproportionate to the benefit derived by the complainant. In Hanson v. Jaccard Jewelry Co. (C. C.) 32 Fed. 202, the court said:

“On an application for an injunction pending suit, it is proper for the court to consider the harm that would be done to the complainant by refusing such an order, in comparison with the damage that might be sustained by the defendant in consequence of granting the same.”

In Trow Directory, etc., Co. v. Boyd (C. C.) 97 Fed. 586, Judge Lacombe said:

“Nevertheless an injunction to the full extent prayed for by the complainant would, if issued now, be practically a judgment in advance of trial, which would work irreparable injury to the defendant, while it seems as if the complainant might be sufficiently protected by a bond and an account of sales.”

In West Publishing Co. v. Lawyers’ Co-op. Pub. Co. (C. C.) 53 Fed. 265, Judge Coxe said:

“It is the duty of the court in all these cases to take into consideration the situation of both parties, and not to issue the writ except in the plainest cases, where the result will be irreparable injury to defendant, without corresponding advantage to plaintiff.”

In Sargent v. Seagrave, 2 Curt. 553, Fed. Cas. No. 12,365, Judge Curtis said:

“The court looks to the particular circumstances to see what degree of inconvenience would be occasioned to one party or the other by granting or withholding the injunction.”

In Spottswoode v. Clarke, 2 Phil. Ch. 157, the chancellor said:

“Here is a publication which, if not issued this month, will lose a great part of its sale for the ensuing year. If you restrain the party from selling immediately, you probably make it impossible for him to sell at all. You take property out of his pocket and give it to nobody.

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Bluebook (online)
129 F. 761, 1904 U.S. App. LEXIS 4772, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sampson-murdock-co-v-seaver-radford-co-circtdma-1904.