Tupelo Spindle Co. v. Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing Co.

220 F. Supp. 771, 1963 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8082
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Mississippi
DecidedAugust 29, 1963
DocketNo. E-C-16-61
StatusPublished

This text of 220 F. Supp. 771 (Tupelo Spindle Co. v. Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Mississippi primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Tupelo Spindle Co. v. Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing Co., 220 F. Supp. 771, 1963 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8082 (N.D. Miss. 1963).

Opinion

CLAYTON, District Judge.

This is a suit by plaintiff, Tupelo Spindle Company, a Mississippi corporation, to rescind a contract made with the defendant, Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing Company, a foreign corporation, and to obtain by such recision certain patent rights assigned to defendant pursuant to said contract. Claim for such relief is bottomed principally on these positions advanced in the pleadings or in briefs by plaintiff:

a) Fraud on the part of Allis-Chal-mers in the procurement of the contract;
b) Failure of Allis-Chalmers to give plaintiff a reasonable opportunity to adequately perform after acceptance of inferior performance over a long period of time;
c) Summary and arbitrary material breach of the contract by Allis-Chalmers ;
d) Failure of consideration.

Trial was to the court. The hearing was lengthy, producing a transcript of more than sixteen hundred pages, and the briefs upon which the case was submitted are voluminous. In these circumstances, a rather full statement of the facts which are not in dispute and as determined from the evidence by the court is proper.

1) Allis-Chalmers is now and has been for many years a manufacturer of, among other things, a full line of farm [773]*773machinery and equipment. The president and sole stockholder of plaintiff, during a substantial part of the time with which we are concerned, is J. H. Gray, who was an employee of Allis-Chalmers from 1953 until 1960. During that time he worked principally as a “blockman” or factory service and sales representative, recruiting Allis-Chal-mers dealers and working with dealers to assist them in selling Allis-Chalmers products and in the successful operation of their dealerships. He was a loyal, enthusiastic and effective employee, except as will be afterward mentioned.

2) A written condition o' employment for all Allis-Chalmers employees is that any invention or improvement conceived by an employee would be the property of Allis-Chalmers. Gray understood that this was a condition of his employment with Allis-Chalmers. At least once, before the time with which we are concerned, he submitted one improvement to his company which was used by Allis-Chalmers.

3) Allis-Chalmers began to manufacture and market, about 1951, a mechanical cotton picker which had, as a critical part, a “spindle” (which is the part that comes into direct contact with the fibers of the open cotton boll) of a “fluted” type which was manufactured by Allis-Chal-mers. Their pickers, equipped with this spindle, were not as efficient and reliable, under the varied conditions which are present in the geographically wide spread cotton growing territory, as were some pickers placed on the market by others, and, Allis-Chalmers did not meet with marked success in this field before 1958 or 1959.

4) The aforementioned situation was of continuing concern to Gray as a block-man for Allis-Chalmers. He was disappointed that his company was not in a pre-eminent position in the cotton picker market, and, he conceived the basic idea for a spindle of a different design, which he believed would be more efficient. In course of time, there was developed a rough model of the Gray conceived spindle which was submitted by Gray to Allis-Chalmers in late 1956 under the aforesaid condition of his employment. He was advised by Allis-Chal-mers in April of 1957 that they, at that time, were not interested in this device.

5) Plaintiff claims that W. L. Wood, who was a neighbor and friend of Gray, contributed materially to conceiving and developing the invention, but all the evidence compels the finding that the basic idea and its refinement to a patentable stage were Gray’s and Gray’s alone. But, in November, 1957, Gray undertook in writing to sell this invention to Wood, who furnished the capital to begin its manufacture on a small scale in 1958, in Tupelo, Mississippi, where both Wood and Gray lived. A concurrent oral provision of the “sale” by Gray to Wood of this invention was that if it succeeded, then one-half would belong to Gray. Applications for letters patent were made by Wood alone.

6) Operations began under the trade name of “Tupelo Spindle Company.” The spindle which was manufactured was called the “Tupelo Recessed Barb Spindle.” “Tulepo Spindle Company” manufactured and sold to the market about 485,000 spindles in 1958. Many of these were used to replace, in Allis-Chalmers pickers, the fluted type spindle aforementioned. Ostensibly to further the sales of Allis-Chalmers pickers and to soothe the feelings of owners who were not pleased with the performance of their Allis-Chalmers pickers, Gray, as an Al-lis-Chalmers blockman, assisted in promoting sales for the “Tupelo” spindle. He also arranged for the employment as full time sales manager by “Tupelo Spindle Company” of a blockman of Allis-Chalmers.

7) As a result of its appearance in the market and its success, Allis-Chalmers, in the fall of 1958, became interested in acquiring the patents for the Tupelo spindle. Their representatives conferred with Gray and advanced to him their claims to this spindle under the aforementioned condition of Gray’s employment with Allis-Chalmers. At this time Gray told Allis-Chalmers, for the first [774]*774time, that Wood was involved. Following this, Gray, apparently acting for “Tupelo Spindle Company”, but professing also to be acting in the best interests of Allis-Chalmers, made a written proposal to Allis-Chalmers which was in substance that “Tupelo Spindle Company”, through 1960, would manufacture all Tupelo spindles required by Allis-Chalmers for new pickers and for conversion of older pickers, at 30^ each; that “Tupelo Spindle Company” would quit selling spindles to anyone else and that Allis-Chalmers could take over prosecution of the application for patents with joint rights to belong to Allis-Chalmers, “Tupelo Spindle Company” and Gray after 1960, but exclusive rights to “Tu-pelo Spindle Company” until that time. This offer contemplated negotiations with respect to price between Allis-Chalmers and “Tupelo Spindle Company” for the continued manufacture of spindles for Allis-Chalmers at the end of the two year period. This proposal was voluntary on Gray’s part and was not induced by Al-lis-Chalmers.

8) After the Gray proposal, Allis-Chalmers representatives came to Tupelo and conferred at length with Wood. A prop'osed draft agreement which was brought to Tupelo by the Allis-Chalmers representatives was used as a basis for discussion in these conferences. Gray sat in -on all these conferences and took an active part in all discussions. He also took an active part in explaining to Wood some of the proposals which were discussed and in persuading Wood that such proposals would be to Wood’s advantage. Basic general agreement on all matters under discussion was arrived at between Allis-Chalmers and Wood and notes were made as to each understanding. It was understood by all concerned that these agreements would be reduced to writing and executed by the parties at a later date. Leaving out some of the details with which we are not here concerned, the essence of the agreement was that:

a) “Tupelo Spindle Company” would manufacture for Allis-Chal-mers all its requirements for Tu-pelo spindles at a price of 2áf each for the years 1959 and 1960 and would sell spindles to no one else.

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Bluebook (online)
220 F. Supp. 771, 1963 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8082, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tupelo-spindle-co-v-allis-chalmers-manufacturing-co-msnd-1963.