Banks v. Manchester
| Decision Date | 19 November 1888 |
| Docket Number | No. 45.,45. |
| Citation | 128 U.S. 244,9 S.Ct. 36,32 L.Ed. 425 |
| Parties | BANKS v. MANCHESTER. |
| Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
APPEAL FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF OHIO.
Mr. Edward L. Taylor, for appellants.
Mr. Richard A. Harrison, for appellee.
The Revised Statutes of Ohio, in §§ 426 to 435, (title 4, chapter 1, pp. 273, 274, edition of 1879,) provide for the appointment of a reporter by the Supreme Court of that State, to report and prepare for publication its decisions, and for the printing of copies of the reports by the public printer, and for their distribution to public officers, as soon as a form of sixteen pages of printed matter is printed, and also for the binding and distribution of a full volume.
Section 436 provides as follows: "The reporter shall secure a copyright, for the use of the State, for each volume of the reports so published; and he shall receive such compensation for his services, not exceeding eighteen hundred dollars per year, during the time the Supreme Court Commission is in session; and at all other times not exceeding one thousand dollars yearly, payable out of the state treasury, in such installments as the Supreme Court by order entered on its journal, directs."
Section 437, as amended by the act of January 17th, 1881, 78 Laws of Ohio, 14, provides for the mode of doing such printing and binding, under a contract to be made by the Secretary of State with a responsible person or firm, when and as often as he shall be authorized to do so by a resolution of the General Assembly. That section says: "Such contract shall not be for a longer period than two years; and such contractor shall have the sole and exclusive right to publish such reports, so far as the State can confer the same during such period of two years, and shall be furnished with the manuscript to be printed, as provided in this chapter." It also provides not only for the printing and binding, and the furnishing to the State and the selling to the public, of copies of the volumes of the reports, but for the furnishing to the Secretary of State of a prescribed number of advance sheets of the reports, in forms of sixteen pages of printed matter.
On the 17th of April, 1882, the General Assembly of the State of Ohio passed the following joint resolution, 79 Laws of Ohio, 249:
On the 16th of June, 1882, in pursuance of that resolution, the Secretary of State of the State of Ohio entered into a contract, on behalf of that State, and in which it was named as the party of the second part, with H.W. Derby & Co., ofColumbus, Ohio, the material parts of which were as follows: H.W. Derby & Co. agreed to furnish the material for, and to print and bind, on paper and in character and quality of binding equal to Volume 1 Ohio State Reports, in the manner in all respects and with the expedition as provided by law, a sufficient number of copies of Volume 38, and of the next succeeding volume or volumes, if any, of the Ohio State Reports, that might be ready for publication within two years from and after June 23d, 1882; to supply the State with a specified number of copies of each volume, when bound, at a specified price per volume; to supply the public with like copies at a specified, limited price; and to set up the matter furnished them in forms of sixteen pages, and furnish to the Secretary of State printed copies of such forms. The State agreed that Derby & Co. "shall have the sole and exclusive right to publish the reports aforesaid, so far as the said State of Ohio can confer the same, for and during the said period of two years, commencing with said 23d day of June, 1882, and that they shall, moreover, be furnished with all the manuscript thereof to be printed, as provided by law." Derby & Co. assigned all their right and interest in the contract to Banks & Brothers, of New York city.
The bill of complaint in the present case was filed by David Banks and A. Bleeker Banks, composing the firm of Banks & Brothers, against G.L. Manchester, in the Circuit Court of the United States for the Southern District of Ohio. It sets forth the matters above stated, and avers that Banks & Brothers have proceeded to carry out all the terms and conditions of the contract, and that they and the State of Ohio are complying with its conditions; that the Supreme Court of Ohio has decreed that Volumes 41 and 42 of the Ohio State Reports shall be published under and are included in the terms of the contract, and that no other persons have any right to publish the decisions which are to be contained in said Volumes 41 and 42, except as authorized by Banks & Brothers; that the contract was made in pursuance of §§ 436 and 437 of the Revised Statutes of Ohio; that the plaintiffs, on October 1st, 1884, entered into an arrangement with "The Capital Printing andPublishing Company," of Columbus, Ohio, by which that company was authorized to publish the decisions of the Supreme Court of Ohio, and of the Supreme Court Commission of Ohio, which were to be contained in, and to constitute what would be, the 41st and 42d Ohio State Reports, the same to be published in "The Ohio Law Journal," a publication owned by said company; that, under such arrangement, that company, on the 14th of October, 1884, issued its No. 9 of Volume 6 of "The Ohio Law Journal," and at the same time issued, as a supplement to that number, a certain book or publication containing, among other cases, one entitled "The Scioto Valley Railway Company v. McCoy," decided by the Supreme Court of Ohio, and which would appear as a part of Volume 42 of Ohio State Reports, and one entitled "Bierce et al. v. Bierce et al.," decided by the Supreme Court Commission of Ohio, and which would appear as a part of Volume 41 of Ohio State Reports; and that, before said book was issued, and on the 13th of October, 1884, E.L. DeWitt, "reporter for the Supreme Court of Ohio and of the Supreme Court Commission of Ohio, in pursuance of the duties of his office and for the benefit of the State of Ohio," entered in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, a printed copy of the title of said work, containing the said decisions, and did, within ten days thereafter, deposit in the said office, at Washington, two complete copies of said book.
A copy of the said number of "The Ohio Law Journal," with the book as a supplement, containing 16 printed pages, is attached to the bill. It shows the title of the book, or supplement, as entered in the office of the Librarian of Congress, and as afterwards issued, namely, "Cases argued and determined in the Supreme Court and Supreme Court Commission of Ohio;" and, below the title and table of contents, and on the first page of the book, which is page 17, is printed the following:
The bill avers that that title was printed on each copy ofthe book issued by the Capital Printing and Publishing Company, as was also the above notice of copyright; that the defendant, on November 5th, 1884, issued numbers 22 and 23 of Volume 1 of a book entitled "The American Law Journal," in one of which numbers he printed and published the said case of "Bierce et al. v. Bierce et al.," and in the other of which he printed and published the said case of "The Scioto Valley Railway Company v. McCoy;" that, prior to the said publication by the defendant, neither of said cases had been published except in the book so issued, on the 14th of October, by the Capital Printing and Publishing Company; and that those cases were copied by the defendant from...
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