American Saint Gobain Corp. v. Armstrong Glass Co.
| Decision Date | 10 June 1969 |
| Docket Number | Civ. A. No. 2247. |
| Citation | 300 F. Supp. 419 |
| Parties | AMERICAN SAINT GOBAIN CORPORATION, Plaintiff, v. ARMSTRONG GLASS COMPANY, Inc., Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Tennessee |
Robert J. Kadel, and Berj A. Terzian, Pennie, Edmonds, Morton, Taylor & Adams, New York City, Ernest F. Smith, Kingsport, Tenn., for plaintiff.
Ferdinand Powell, Jr., Johnson City, Tenn., E. M. Luedeka, Knoxville, Tenn., for defendant.
The defendant is in contempt of the lawful injunctive order of this Court. Its act of contempt was infringing letters patent of the plaintiff after having been enjoined from so doing. The defendant gave notice of appeal from the Court's order adjudging it in contempt and referring the issue of the plaintiff's damages to a special master, D.C., 300 F.Supp. 416. It now seeks a stay of the proceedings under the order of reference before the special master, pending an appellate review.
Ordinarily, an interlocutory or final judgment directing an accounting for infringement of letters patent is not stayed during the pendency of an appeal, unless otherwise ordered by the Court. Rule 62(a), Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. However, courts of appeal are awarded jurisdiction of appeals from judgments in civil actions for patent infringement which are final except for an accounting. 28 U.S.C. § 1292(a) (4). This is to prevent the useless waste of time and money for an accounting before the court of appeals has had an opportunity to pass on the propriety of the lower court's finding of infringement and thereby, to determine whether there will be an accounting. McCullough v. Kammerer Corp. (1947), 331 U.S. 96, 98-99, 67 S.Ct. 1165, 91 L.Ed. 1365, 1367.
The situation presented here is different, however. The parties entered a consent judgment herein on October 9, 1968. Therein, the defendant admitted infringement of the plaintiff's patent and was enjoined from further infringement. When the defendant continued or resumed infringement, the Court held it in contempt of a lawful order. The defendant's contemptuous act had aspects of both criminal and civil contempt, indicating the seasonable entry by the Court of an order fixing the punishment. The Court referred to the special master the issue of the amount of damages sustained by the plaintiff from the infringement by the defendant subsequent to October 9, 1968, to form a predicate for the determination of a proper...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
SCHLEGEL MANUFACTURING CO. v. King Aluminum Corp.
...is clear that, if ordered by the Court, an accounting may be stayed pending appeal, F.R.Civ.P. 62(a), American Saint Gobain Corp. v. Armstrong Glass Co., 300 F.Supp. 419 (E.D. Tenn.1969). Conversely, in the context of a contempt proceeding the district court's order is not appealable if the......
-
Ransburg Electro-Coating Corp. v. IONIC ELECTRO. CORP., Misc. No. 680.
...the subject of the attempted appeal, 300 F.Supp. 416 (see also the order of the District Court denying a motion for stay pending appeal, 300 F.Supp. 419), was seen as contemplating additional remedial proceedings in the District Court and therefore was not considered a judgment, final excep......
-
PLC Trenching Co. v. Newton
...during appeal from order of civil contempt and monetary fine for violating preliminary injunction); Am. St. Gobain Corp. v. Armstrong Glass Co., 300 F. Supp. 419, 420-21 (D. Tenn. 1969) (denying defendant's motion for stay by bond during appeal from court's "order of adjudging [the defendan......