Van Meter v. United States

47 F.2d 192, 1931 U.S. App. LEXIS 3427
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Second Circuit
DecidedJanuary 5, 1931
Docket110, 164
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 47 F.2d 192 (Van Meter v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Van Meter v. United States, 47 F.2d 192, 1931 U.S. App. LEXIS 3427 (2d Cir. 1931).

Opinions

MANTON, Circuit Judge.

This suit was tried, without the intervention of the jury, before the court. Title 28, U. S. Code, § 773 (28 USCA § 773). Special findings were made and a judgment entered for plaintiff below for $46,137.50.

Plaintiff was granted patent No. 1,192,-479, on July 25, 1916, on an application filed March 27, 1911, for a parachute apparatus. After July 25, .1916, plaintiff became an officer of the United States Army and continued as such, attached to the air service, at the trial of the action. As an officer in the United States Army, he could not sue the United States in the Court of Claims under the statute. Title 35 U. S. Code, § 68 (35 USCA § 68). To do so would require resigning his commission and leaving the service, even though the patent was granted to him prior to employment by the government. Congress passed a special act, upon which jurisdiction is based, which permits the plaintiff to prosecute his suit. It provides that “jurisdiction is hereby conferred upon the Court of Claims or the District Courts of the United States, notwithstanding the lapse of time or the statute of limitations and the fact that Solomon L. Van Meter, junior, is an employee of or in the Air Service of the United States, to hear, examine, [194]*194adjudicate, and render judgment on the claim of Solomon L. Van Meter, junior, for the use and manufacture by or for the United States without license of the owner thereof or lawful right to use or manufacture the same, of an invention of Solomon L. Van Meter, junior, described in or covered by letters patent numbered 1192479, issued by the Patent Office of the United States on the 25th day of July, 1916, prior to the time Solomon L. Van Met-, er, junior, entered the service of the United States.” 43 Stat. pt. 2, p. 1601, c. 587, § 1, Private Acts, No. 271, 68th Congress, Tr. 408, 469. The purpose of this act was plain. It conferred jurisdiction on the Court of Claims or the District Court of the United States to render judgment on the claim for compensation of the plaintiff by reason of the infringement complained of and found in the court below.

The court made special findings and found as facts the validity of the patent and the infringement of claim 2, as modified by a disclaimer filed in the Patent Office. The court declined to award the plaintiff the entire profits as compensation against the government. The defendant appeals from the findings-of infringement, and the plaintiff from the amount of the award.

The special act authorized a review by an appellate court (Colgate v. United States, 280 U. S. 43, 50 S. Ct. 22, 74 L. Ed. 157), but, since the ease was tried without a jury, the review is limited to an inquiry as to whether the facts found support the judgment. Norris v. Jackson, 9 Wall. 125, 19 L. Ed. 608; Preston v. Prather, 137 U. S. 604, 11 S. Ct. 162, 34 L. Ed. 788; title 28, U. S. Code, '§ 875 (28 USCA § 875). No bill of exceptions has been filed or ordered by the court. The time to do so has expired.

The findings disclose a patent for a combination with a parachute and suspensory cords connected with the body of the user, of means attached to the body of the user for confining the parachute and the cords, together with‘means for releasing the parachute from confinement and means for quickening and insuring the expansion of the parachute when released, all elements being embodied in an apparatus worn upon the body of the user and unconnected with the aero-plane, so that it does not limit his movement with respect to the latter. The parachute is released by a pull on the release cord, irrespective of the position of the user with respect to the plane. With it the aviator may jump free of the plane, carrying the parachute apparatus with him on his back, and release the parachute at will after having jumped. The court found this combination of elements novel and not disclosed by prior patents or publications offered in evidence; that there was no prior use of the device embodying this invention; that the combination of elements claimed in claim 2, as limited by the disclaimer, involved invention over the prior art; and that the patent was therefore valid and infringed.

On the accounting, the court found that, on the date of the suit, plaintiff owned the entire patent and all rights of action for past infringement thereof; that he was entitled to recover compensation for the non-licensed use and maufacture by the defendant of its infringing apparatus for a period from January 1, 1919', to August 15, 1925, and that during this period, 3,691 units of infringing parachute apparatus, for which was paid $1,292,740.46, had been used, and that $12.50 for each complete unit of the parachute apparatus was a reasonable royalty. These findings support the judgment which has been entered.

The court found as a fact the existence of the statutory prerequisites to a valid disclaimer. But it is argued that there is no evidence to support that finding or. that the court below should not have found the existence of inadvertanee, accident, or mistake. The existence of inadvertanee, accident, or mistake is a question of fact. Since it has been found against the defendant, in one of the special findings that, without fraudulent or deceptive intention, the plaintiff claimed more than that of which he was the original or first inventor, and, in compliance with the U. S. Rev. Stat. §§ 4917, 4922 (35 USCA §§ 65, 71), he disclaimed such parts of the things patented as he did not choose to claim by virtue of the patent, his patent is .valid for that which is truly his. This is the invention set forth in claim 2 as thus limited by the disclaimer. In view of this finding, the disclaimer cannot be successfully attacked here. The plaintiff did or said nothing indicating an intention to dedicate to the public the invention patented by him as described in claim 2. Both validity and infringement having been found, the plaintiff’s right to recovery is ‘established.

The defendant argues that the Tucker Act, title 28, U. S. Code, § 41(20) 28 USCA § 41(20), limits a recovery under it to $10,-000. The Tucker Act confers jurisdiction upon the District Court in certain classes of [195]*195cases, as claims arising against the United States and up to $10,000 upon any contract, expressed or implied, with the government for damages, liquidated or unliquidated. This is not limiting the general jurisdiction of the District Courts, hut it confers jurisdiction in these classes of cases. But the special act for the plaintiffs benefit conferred upon the District Court authority to hear, examine, adjudicate, and render judgment on the claim of plaintiff for the unlicensed use or manufacture by or for the United States of his patented invention. It removed the disability to sue under which he suffered, and conferred jurisdiction on the District Court, to render judgment on his claim. There is no sound reason for reading into the act a limitation as to the amount of recovery. The Tucker Act has no bearing upon the plaintiff’s claim. He could not sue hut for this special act. It conferred jurisdiction without respect to the amount involved. U. S. v. Pfitsch, 256 U. S. 547, 41 S. Ct. 569, 65 L. Ed. 1084; U. S. v. McGrane (C. C. A.) 270 F. 761.

Rice v. United States, 122 U. S. 611, 7 S. Ct. 1377, 30 L. Ed. 793, considered whether or not the.

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Van Meter v. United States
47 F.2d 192 (Second Circuit, 1931)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
47 F.2d 192, 1931 U.S. App. LEXIS 3427, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/van-meter-v-united-states-ca2-1931.