Smith v. Little, Brown & Company

245 F. Supp. 451, 146 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 540, 1965 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9613
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedJune 25, 1965
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 245 F. Supp. 451 (Smith v. Little, Brown & Company) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Smith v. Little, Brown & Company, 245 F. Supp. 451, 146 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 540, 1965 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9613 (S.D.N.Y. 1965).

Opinion

McLEAN, District Judge.

This is an action for alleged plagiarism of plaintiff’s uncopyrighted, unpublished manuscript. Plaintiff seeks an injunction, an accounting of profits and punitive damages.

The action was begun in the Supreme Court, New York County, and was removed by defendant to this court. Edith Patterson Meyer, named a defendant, was not served. The action went to trial against Little, Brown & Company as the sole defendant.

Jurisdiction is based upon diversity of citizenship.

I find the facts to be as follows:

Plaintiff is a lawyer who has done some legal writing. In earlier years she also wrote a newspaper column and plays for radio. In 1956 she and her husband, a New York investment banker, went to Ireland on a vacation. They visited Bal-lynahinch Castle, in Connemara, on the west coast of Connaught. The owner of the castle told them about Grania O’Mal-ley who had lived there for a time in the 16th century. Grania was a colorful personality of considerable renown in Irish legend. Comparatively few actual facts about her are recorded in history, but it is known that she was at least the de facto, and perhaps the duly elected, chief of the warlike clan of the O’Malleys, the only member of her sex ever to hold such an office. In that capacity she led the O’Malleys in battle against the invading English and directed them in their piratical forays by sea out of their stronghold on Clare Island in Clew Bay. Historical documents prove that toward the end of her life Grania had an interview with Queen Elizabeth who seems to have been moved not only to forgive Grania her past transgressions, but also to bestow an earldom upon her son.

Plaintiff became much interested in Grania and during her stay in Ireland she read up on her. There have been a number of articles about Grania in Irish journals and at least four historical romances which feature her as the central figure have been published in Ireland or England. Up until the events involved in this case, however, no book about her had been published in the United States.

Plaintiff decided to write such a book. Between the summer of 1956 and the spring of 1957, she wrote a nine-page summary of a proposed novel to be entitled “Pirate Queen of Connaught.” In addition, she wrote a six-page outline of the plot of the novel and the first four complete chapters of the work. In March 1957, a friend introduced plaintiff to Williams, then the manager of the New York office of Little, Brown & Company, a publishing firm whose main office is in Boston. Plaintiff submitted her manuscript to him on April 18, 1957.

After reading it, Williams took it to defendant’s Boston office sometime during the week preceding May 10, 1957, apparently on May 3. 1 Meanwhile, plaintiff completed a fifth chapter and sent it to Williams. He forwarded it to Bradford, editor in chief of defendant's trade de *453 partment in defendant’s Boston office, with a memorandum dated May 10, 1957, referring to it as “another chapter from Mrs. Smith” to be “put with the other four which I left with you last week.”

The manuscript, apparently minus Chapter 5, was read by a reader named Buckman in defendant’s Boston office who, by memorandum dated May 9, 1957, recommended its rejection. The manuscript was also read, this time probably including the fifth chapter, by Cushman, the managing editor of the Boston office who, by memorandum dated May 14, 1957, expressed the opinion that the idea was good but that the writing was dull. He suggested that Miss Denniston, a professional ghost writer, could probably improve it. Thereafter Williams inquired of plaintiff whether he might submit the manuscript to Miss Denniston. Plaintiff consented. On May 17, Williams wrote to plaintiff stating that he had sent the manuscript to Miss Denniston on that day. It would appear, therefore, that the Boston office must have returned the manuscript to Williams in New York sometime between May 14, the date of Cush-man’s memo, and May 17, the date of Williams’ letter.

Defendant’s minutes of the “editorial meeting” held in Boston on May 20, 1957, contain the following entry:

“Carol McCormick Crosswell: 2 ‘Pirate Queen of Connaught.’ Manuscript to be shown to Elinore Den-niston to see if she is interested in putting it into publishable form.”

Miss Denniston was not interested in revising the work. Accordingly, on May 29, 1957, Williams wrote to plaintiff returning her manuscript with a polite expression of regret that Little, Brown would not accept it for publication. Williams testified that he made no copy of the manuscript before returning it.

Helen L. Jones is the Editor of the Juvenile Department at defendant’s Boston office. She was an acquaintance of Edith Patterson Meyer whom she had known casually since 1946. Mrs. Meyer had a long career in the publishing business, first with Rand McNally for twenty years and thereafter for over ten years as the children’s book editor of Abingdon Press.

In June 1955 Mrs. Meyer retired from publishing to devote herself to writing. Her first step was to go to Europe on a vacation. She visited Connemara and there a guide told her about Grania O’Malley. The tale intrigued her, just as it did plaintiff on her trip in 1956.

Upon Mrs. Meyer’s return to the United States in 1956, a friend told her that Helen Jones had expressed the hope that Mrs. Meyer would write a book for Little, Brown. Mrs. Meyer met with Miss Jones at the Grosvenor Hotel in New York on September 13, 1956. Mrs. Meyer told Miss Jones what she had learned of the legend of Grania O’Malley. Miss Jones urged Mrs. Meyer to write a book about it for juvenile readers. Mrs. Meyer was interested but made no commitment at that time.

She did nothing about it between September 1956 and May 1957, although during that period she and Miss Jones again from time to time discussed the possibility of such a book.

On May 29,1957, Miss Jones in defendant’s Boston office addressed a memorandum to Williams in defendant’s New York office in which she stated:

“Subject Pirate Queen of Con-naught
I note by the Editorial Meeting Minutes of May 20 that you have a manuscript on this subject which is apparently at present not in publishable form. I thought you might like to know that I had some discussion about a possible children’s book concerning the ‘Queen’ to be written by Edith Patterson Meyer.
******
My thoughts about her in connection with the ‘Pirate Queen’ are two at present: (1) she might be interested in ghosting the unpublishable *454 manuscript you have now, or (2) you might decide that the ‘Queen’ is a better juvenile project than adult, and it might be well to wait a couple of years for Mrs. Meyer’s version. We will require at least a couple if she does it, for she wants to go back to Ireland first.
I’ve mentioned this to Ned Bradford and he suggested that I tell you my story as above.”

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Bluebook (online)
245 F. Supp. 451, 146 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 540, 1965 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9613, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/smith-v-little-brown-company-nysd-1965.