Tel-Pic Syndicate, Inc. v. Station Wibs

94 F. Supp. 888, 1951 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2753
CourtDistrict Court, D. Puerto Rico
DecidedJanuary 23, 1951
DocketCiv. A. No. 6094
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 94 F. Supp. 888 (Tel-Pic Syndicate, Inc. v. Station Wibs) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Puerto Rico primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Tel-Pic Syndicate, Inc. v. Station Wibs, 94 F. Supp. 888, 1951 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2753 (prd 1951).

Opinion

ROBERTS, District Judge.

This is an action brought by Tel-Pic Syndicate, Inc., a New York corporation!,, against Station WIBS, a Puerto Rican corporation, seeking a declaratory judgment that an agreement entered into between them on August 23, 1950, is a valid contract binding on the parties. The plaintiff further sought certain injunctive relief.

The agreement, with respect to which declaratory judgment: is sought, was in the form of a letter from the defendant to the plaintiff, dated August. 23, 1950', wherein the defendant asserted its acceptance of the plaintiff’s promotion plan for Station WIBS. . This letter was signed for the defendant corporation through one Jose E. del Valle, its President and was “accepted” for the plaintiff corporation through one Stanley Grayson, its General Manager.

The agreement, in substance, provided1 that the plaintiff would conduct a publicity-campaign for the defendant and would,, through Grayson, as its representative, solicit business establishments in Puerto Rico-to subscribe to a plan under which such-business establishments would display within their premises an electric clock bearing; the call letters and dial settings of the defendant’s radio station and contract with the plaintiff for program time on said station. The clocks were to be furnished at no cost to the defendant. The defendant, on its part, “in return for the publicity to be gained through the Tel-Pic Syndicate-plan”, was to provide for each subscriber contracted by Grayson for the plaintiff three five minute programs a week for a period, of one year. The number of subscribers to be so provided with program time was [889]*889limited to fifty. The program periods were to include an identification of the subscriber as sponsor of the program, a short musical program and a fifty word message advertising the subscriber’s business.

The agreement contains no provisions for compensating the plaintiff, but an examination of the pleadings indicates that the plaintiff was, on some basis, paid by the subscribers to the plan.

On the same day, August 23, 1950, anoth-er letter, signed by del Valle as President •of the defendant corporation, was delivered to the plaintiff. This letter, addressed “To Whom It May Concern”, stated that Gray-son, representing Teil-Pic Syndicate, Inc., of New York, would be general manager of the special publicity campaign for Station WIBS and explained the plan in some detail, particularly referring to the display of the electric clocks and the allocation of radio time to subscribers to the plan.

Thereafter, there apparently was some dispute as to the authority of dal Valle to bind the defendant corporation and, on October 10, 1950, another letter signed by del Valle as President of the defendant corporation was given to the plaintiff. This letter, in substance, purported to be a ratification of the contract of August 23, 1950, modified by reducing the acceptable number •of subscribers to the plan from fifty to forty-two. An “acceptance” of this modification was signed for the plaintiff corporation by Stanley Grayson as its General Manager.

The defendant subsequently refused to carry out its agreement to provide subscribers contracted by the plaintiff with the prescribed radio time and the plaintiff thereupon brought this suit. The case is now before the court on plaintiff’s motion for preliminary injunction restraining the defendant from selling or otherwise disposing of radio time which the defendant will require to perform its contract with the plaintiff. During hearing on this motion the plaintiff conceded that preliminary injunction should not be granted but contended that it should be granted the declaratory judgment prayed in the complaint.

However, the defendant challenges the plaintiff’s right to maintain this action at all. The plaintiff, defendant contends, is a foreign corporation doing business in Puerto Rico without having qualified under applicable provisions of the insular corporation law to so engage in business in Puerto Rico and is, therefore, 'by virtue of Section 38 of the Corporation Law of Puerto Rico, without right to maintain this action. Section 38 of the Corporation Law reads as follows: “No foreign corporation doing business in Puerto Rico shall maintain any action in Puerto Rico upon any contract made by it in this Island, unless prior to the making “of such contract, it shall have complied with the provisions of this chapter with regard to qualifying to do business in Puerto Rico. This prohibition shall also apply to any assignee of any such foreign corporation or to any person claiming under such assignee or foreign corporation, or under either of them.”

In reply the plaintiff urges first, that this is not a suit on the agreement of August 23, 1950, but is a suit on the “To Whom It May Concern” letter of August 23, 1950. This attempt to construe the “To Whom It May Concern” letter as a separate agreement between the defendant and Grayson is clearly an argument of expediency seeking the substitution o>f an individual for the corporation to circumvent the statute and is without merit. The two letters of August 23, 1950, obviously were written in the execution of one transaction, the “To Whom It May Concern” letter being supplementary to the letter embodying the terms of the agreement. That letter plainly was intended and delivered to implement the agreement by establishing Grayson’s authority as the plaintiff’s representative to solicit potential subscribers to the plan. The very nature of the promotional scheme involved made it imperative that Grayson be in possession of some document which evidenced the defendant’s participation in the plan and his status as a representative of the plaintiff with authority to solicit subscribers and to contract for placement of the allocated radio time. Without such implementation the campaign contemplated by [890]*890the parties would have bogged down in its incipiency. But any enforceable right against the defendant that the plaintiff may have must be found within the terms of the agreement itself.

The plaintiff in the second place urges that, in any event, the provisions of Section 38 of the Corporation Law of Puerto Rico are not applicable in this case, as in the transaction under consideration it was not engaged in doing business in Puerto Rico, but was making an interstate sale, any regulation of which by Puerto Rico would constitute an invalid burden on interstate commerce.

The controlling question here is whether the plaintiff was, in the transaction under consideration, doing business in Puerto Rico within the meaning of said Section 38 of the insular corporation law. If it was and the statute is applicable, plaintiff cannot maintain this action, the record revealing that it has not complied with the provisions of insular law relative to foreign corporations qualifying to do business in Puerto Rico. On the other hand, if, as it claims, plaintiff was engaging in interstate commerce in the transaction under consideration, it is well established that Section 38 does not apply and this action is maintainable. See Ismert Hinkle Milling Co. v. Muñoz, 37 P.R.R. 762; Mutual Rice Co. v. Truyol, 52 P.R.R. 7; Sioux Remedy Co. v. Cope, 235 U.S. 197, 35 S.Ct. 57, 59 L.Ed. 193; and, Furst v. Brewster, 282 U.S. 493, 51 S.Ct. 295, 75 L.Ed. 478.

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Bluebook (online)
94 F. Supp. 888, 1951 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2753, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tel-pic-syndicate-inc-v-station-wibs-prd-1951.