Triangle Conduit & Cable Co. v. National Elec. P. Corp.
| Decision Date | 10 February 1942 |
| Docket Number | No. 7779.,7779. |
| Citation | 125 F.2d 1008 |
| Parties | TRIANGLE CONDUIT & CABLE CO., Inc., v. NATIONAL ELECTRIC PRODUCTS CORPORATION. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit |
Samuel E. Darby, Jr., of New York City (E. Ennalls Berl of Wilmington, Del., and Louis D. Fletcher and Floyd H. Crews, both of New York City, on the brief), for appellant.
John Hoxie, of New York City (Marvel & Morford, of Wilmington, Del., Pennie, Davis, Marvin & Edmonds, Dean S. Edmonds, and W. Peters Blanc, all of New York City, on the brief), for appellee.
Before BIGGS, MARIS, CLARK, JONES, and GOODRICH, Circuit Judges.
Triangle Conduit & Cable Co., Inc., is a Delaware corporation engaged in the manufacture of electric wire, conduits and cables. National Electric Products Corporation is a Delaware corporation which also manufactures electric wire and cable. It owns patents which relate to the construction of and methods and machines for making wires and cables. On January 9, 1941 National formally notified Triangle that the latter was infringing 11 of the patents owned by National. On the same day it notified Sears, Roebuck & Company and M. B. Austin Company, customers of Triangle, that they were infringing seven of the same patents by reason of their sale of articles manufactured in disregard of National's patent rights.
On January 16, 1941 Triangle commenced an action in the District Court for the District of Delaware seeking a declaratory judgment as to the validity and infringement of the 11 patents specified in the notice to it. On February 3, 1941 National filed suit in the District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan against Triangle and Sears, Roebuck & Company, in which it sought a decree that Triangle had infringed by manufacturing, selling and using articles in violation of all patents specified in the notice to Triangle and involved in the declaratory judgment suit and that Sears, Roebuck & Company had infringed by reselling articles manufactured in violation of six of the seven patents specified in the notice to it. Triangle thereupon moved for an injunction to restrain National from proceeding with the infringement suit until the District Court in Delaware had adjudicated the declaratory judgment suit. The court refused the motion and this appeal followed.
Triangle urges that the material facts and the question presented in the present case are identical with those in Crosley Corporation v. Hazeltine Corporation, 3 Cir., 122 F.2d 925, and that under the ruling in that case the district court was bound to enjoin the further prosecution of the infringement suit in the present case. In the Crosley case we held that a United States district court which first obtained jurisdiction of the parties and issues had the power to enjoin the further prosecution of proceedings involving the same parties and issues begun thereafter in another United States district court. We further held that under the circumstances of that case it was the duty of the court first obtaining jurisdiction to enjoin the prosecution of the subsequent proceedings in the other court. As we have seen, in the present case the district court in Delaware first obtained jurisdiction of Triangle and National and of the controversy between them. Having taken jurisdiction of the declaratory suit brought by Triangle it became the duty of that court to adjudicate the controversy. The rule which we announced in the Crosley case required it to restrain the parties from seeking to have the district court in Michigan duplicate that adjudication.
It is National's contention that the present case is distinguishable from the Crosley case by reason of the fact that National's infringement suit in Michigan was not brought against Triangle alone but that Sears, Roebuck & Company was joined as a defendant therein. We think, however, that the applicability of the rule of the Crosley case does not depend on whether or not in the subsequent infringement suit a reselling...
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