T. L. Smith Co. v. Cement Tile Machinery Co.

249 F. 481, 1918 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1138
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Iowa
DecidedFebruary 19, 1918
DocketNo. 28
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 249 F. 481 (T. L. Smith Co. v. Cement Tile Machinery Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
T. L. Smith Co. v. Cement Tile Machinery Co., 249 F. 481, 1918 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1138 (N.D. Iowa 1918).

Opinion

REED, District Judge.

The patent in suit contains 32 claims, of which Nos. 16, 17, 18, 28, 30, 31, and 32 are alleged in the petition to have been infringed by the defendant. In December, 1914, the plaintiffs brought suit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois against one Edward Foster, a resident of Illinois, for the alleged infringement of said claims and No. 5, in whidh suit, upon the final hearing, judgment and decree went in favor of the plaintiffs in February, 1916, against said Foster for infringing said claims, with a judgment for damages, an order for an accounting, and injunction, which decree was affirmed by the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit February 1, 1917, except as to claim No. 5, which was held by that court to he in effect identical with claim No. 32. A petition for rehearing was denied by the Circuit Court of Appeals July 26, 1917. See Foster v. T. L. Smith Co., 244 Fed. 946,- C. C. A. -. In the defense of the suit against Foster (which will be called the Poster suit), the alleged infringing [482]*482machine was manufactured by this defendant and by it sold to Foster; this defendant participated, employed solicitors, and paid or agreed to pay the greater part if not the entire cost and expense of the suit. After the final determination of that suit, the plaintiff brought this suit against this defendant, who resides in this district, alleging that defendant was'in privity with the defendant Foster in the Foster suit, is concluded and bound by the final judgment and decree in that suit, and further alleging that defendant is continuing to infringe the plaintiffs’ patent, and asks judgment and decree for the damages and other relief awarded against Foster in the Foster suit, and further damages because of continuing to infringe the patent in suit, and for the usual accounting of damages, and, preliminary and permanent injunctions.

The defendant has answered the petition, admitting the issuance of the patent to the plaintiff the T. R. Smith Company, the commencement of the Foster suit, and its result; that defendant made and sold to Foster the machine held in the Foster suit to infringe the plaintiffs’ patent; that defendant participated in the defense of that suit, and paid the greater part or all of the expenses thereof, as alleged by the plaintiffs; but denies that it was in, privity with Foster, or bound by the judgment or decree in that suit. The defendant further alleges the invalidity of the patent in suit, because anticipated by a number of prior patents and other devices in the prior art, and that since the commencement of the Foster suit it has made another mixing machine, which is different in material respects from the Foster machine, which does not infringe the plaintiffs’ patent, nor any of the claims thereof herein involved.

[1] 1. The plaintiffs contend that the judgment and decree in the Foster suit is res adjudicata of every question involved in this suit, and that they are entitled to a judgment and decree against this defendant for the judgment and decree awarded against Foster; and counsel for defendant maintains that the decree in the Foster suit is not res adjudicata of any question involved in that suit, but is open to re-examination by this court of every question involved in that suit; also that defendant’s present structure is not an infringement of any of the claims of the patent in suit involved herein, and was not involved or determined in the Foster suit. Upon the question of res adjudicata it is said in Southern Pacific Railroad Co. v. United States, 168 U. S. 1, at page 48, 18 Sup. Ct. 18, 27 (42 L. Ed. 355):

“The general principle announced in numerous eases is that a right,-question, or fact distinctly put in issue and directly determined by a court of competent jurisdiction, as a ground of recovery, cannot he disputed in a subsequent suit between the same parties or their privies j and even if the second suit is for a different cause of action, the right, question, or fact once so determined must, as between the same parties or their privies, be taken as conclusively established, so long as.the judgment in the first suit remains unmodified. This general rule is demanded by the very object for which civil courts have been established, which is to secure the peace and repose of society by the settlement of matters capable of judicial determination. Its enforcement is essential to the maintenance of social order; for the aid of judicial tribunals would not be invoked for the vindication of * * * person and property if, as between parties'and their privies, conclusiveness did not attend the judgment's of such tribunals in respect of all matters properly put in issue and actually determined by them (citing many cases).”

[483]*483And see Hart Steel Co. v. Railroad Co., 244 U. S. 294, 37 Sup. Ct. 506, 61 L. Ed. 1148, D’Arcy v. Staples & Hanford Co., 161 Fed. 733, 88 C. C. A. 606, and Elliott Co. v. Roto Co., 242 Fed. 941, - C. C. A. -.

I am therefore of opinion, upon the admission of the answer, that the decree in the Foster suit is res adjudícala of the question of the validity of the patent in suit and of its infringement by the Foster machine.

[2] 2. The defendant’s present machine was not involved in the Foster suit, and was not in fact made or put into practical use by it until shortly before its final determination. That suit is not, therefore, an adjudication that defendant’s present machine infringes the plaintiffs’ patent. Cromwell v. Sac Comity, 94 U. S. 351, 24 L. Ed. 195; Packet Co. v. Sickles, 5 Wall. 580, 592, 18 L. Ed. 550; Russell v. Place, 94 U. S. 606, 608, 24 L. Ed. 214, and cases cited; Bates v. Bodie, 245 U. S. 520, 38 Sup. Ct. 182, 62 L. Ed.-. The claims of the patent involved herein, with Figures 1 and 3 of the drawings, are set forth in- the opinion of the Circuit Court of Appeals in the Foster suit (244 Fed. 946,-C. C. A.-), to which reference is made for said claims and drawings, and to the patent in suit for others of the drawings. The Circuit Court of Appeals, in its opinion in the Foster suit, said of the Smith patent:

"¡áiiinlrs most general conception of his machine as an entirety Is probably best stated in claim 32”

—which claim reads in tnis way:

‘‘In a mixing machine, tho combination of (1) a mixing receptacle having one clear and unobstructed opening for feed and discharge concentric, or substantially so, with the axis of revolution; (2) a tUtable frame supporting said receptacle; (3) means for tilting said frame either to tho right or to the left of tlio loading point; (4) a circular toothed rack disposed around the middle of said receptacle; (a) a bevel pinion engaging said toothed rack and journaled in the tilting axis; and (0) means for connecting said pinion with tho source of power.”

Others of the claims involved also state in a general way the same essentials of the Smith structure in its entirety.

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Related

T. L. Smith Co. v. Cement Tile Machinery Co.
257 F. 423 (Eighth Circuit, 1919)

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Bluebook (online)
249 F. 481, 1918 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1138, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/t-l-smith-co-v-cement-tile-machinery-co-iand-1918.