Tashjian v. Forderer Cornice Works

• Decision Date: 20 September 1926
• Docket Number: No. 4762.,4762.
• Citation: 14 F.2d 414
• Parties: TASHJIAN et al. v. FORDERER CORNICE WORKS.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

14 F.2d 414 (1926)

TASHJIAN et al. v. FORDERER CORNICE WORKS.

No. 4762.

Circuit Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

August 2, 1926.

Rehearing Denied September 20, 1926.

Clarence S. Walker, of Jamestown, N. Y., and William K. White and Charles M. Fryer, both of San Francisco, Cal., for appellants.

Carlos P. Griffin, of San Francisco, Cal., for appellee.

Before GILBERT, HUNT, and RUDKIN, Circuit Judges.

GILBERT, Circuit Judge.

The patent involved in this appeal was issued to the appellant November 28, 1922, letters patent 1,437,324. It relates to an element employed in the construction of buildings, and it is designated "a combined conduit, junction box, and outlet box." Its purpose is to provide improved means to meet the requirements of electrical installations in office buildings and other buildings for electrical lights, telephones, signal devices, etc. It had been a common practice to effect such installations by three instrumentalities, junction boxes, conduit members, and outlet boxes. The junction box was to receive wires from the source of supply and provide space for splicing the same to other wires leading therefrom. The conduits were metal pipes attached to the junction boxes, and extending therefrom to the outlet boxes; the latter being fixed at points where it was desired to insert the wires for use in the room. These installations were either imbedded in the walls of the building and covered by plaster or otherwise, except for the covers of the junction boxes and the outlet boxes, or they were secured to the exterior surfaces of the walls. Among the disadvantages of such methods was the fact that they could not be modified or varied, so as to shift the position of the outlet box, without substantial reconstruction and rearrangement.

The appellant devised a metal baseboard (or a railing or a molding) to dispense with the junction boxes, the outlet boxes, and the connecting conduits, and accomplish by one instrumentality the result theretofore accomplished by three; the baseboard having two separate channels to receive and conduct wires, and so constructed as to be utilized readily at any point along its length as a junction box, where wires inserted could readily be spliced to other wires leading to various points at which electrical devices were to be employed. The baseboard was provided with a front cover, intended to close both of said channels and provide a means to which could be attached necessary fittings for electrical devices at any desired point on the baseboard as an outlet box, thereby eliminating also, as a separate element, the outlet box. In brief, the appellant claims to have eliminated the separate junction box and outlet box, and combined in a unitary structure all the functions of both. It was shown that, immediately upon its introduction to the trade, his device went into wide and extensive use, and has been installed in many of the most important buildings in the United States. Nor does the evidence tend to indicate that success was obtained by unusual or extended advertising.

The appellant thus came into court armed with the presumptions that attend the allowance of his patent and its extensive acceptance by the public. The court below dismissed the bill, on the ground that the prior art disclosed many patented devices, "either the same or which could be rendered the same by slight changes"; also on the ground that the appellant's patent covers a mere aggregation of methods long known and used. Several of the patents of the prior art were cited in the Patent Office as against the appellant's application. Upon his argument that his device operated as a conduit or carrier for electrical wires and junction box along any point...