Los Angeles Brush Mfg Corporation v. James

• Decision Date: 25 October 1926
• Citation: 47 S.Ct. 286,272 U.S. 701,71 L.Ed. 481
• Parties: LOS ANGELES BRUSH MFG. CORPORATION v. JAMES, District Judge. No. ___
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

272 U.S. 701

47 S.Ct. 286

71 L.Ed. 481

LOS ANGELES BRUSH MFG. CORPORATION

v JAMES, District Judge.

No. ___.

Submitted on Motion for Leave to File Petition for Writ of Mandamus Oct. 25, 1926

Denied Jan. 3, 1927.

Messrs. Ford W. Harris, of Los Angeles, Cal., and Wm. J. Hughes, Jr., of Washington, D. C., for petitioner.

Mr. Chief Justice TAFT delivered the opinion of the Court.

This is a motion for leave to file a petition for mandamus by the Los Angeles Brush Manufacturing Corporation, against a Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of California. The petitioner is a defendant in two patent suits pending in that court, in one of which the Stabler Parker Company is complainant, and W. B. Clancy and others are complainants in the other. The suits are bills in equity brought to restrain the defendant from infringement of a patent for a new and improved brush. The defendant answered and the complainants moved to set the two cases for trial. Counsel for the complainants said that while his clients would prefer to try the case before the court, he would ask, if the court had not time to try them, that the cases be referred to a special master. Counsel for the defendant objected to such a reference, and said that if the reference was to be made, he would like to have a notation in the record that no showing had been made of exceptional circumstances, and that the cases were referred to the master over his objection. Thereupon the following order was made in each case:

'This cause now appearing on the call of the court's calendar to be set for trial, and it being the desire of both counsel for the plaintiff and defendant, as expressed in open court, that a date be fixed for the trial hereof, and counsel for the plaintiff insists that, because of alleged acts of infringement committed by the defendant, plaintiff will suffer damage by reason of the great delay in the hearing and determination of the issues herein; and it appearing that because of the congestion of the court's calendar there are many other causes entitled to be first heard, including a large number of criminal causes which are entitled to preference over civil matters as to the trial thereof; and it further appearing that, because of the protracted length of patent trials, the result has been and is that other civil litigants having causes to be tried have not been accorded a fair proportion of the time of the court; and it appearing that this condition will continue unless many of the patent cases, including this cause, now pending can be disposed of in the manner herein provided, and, hence, that in order to fairly and within a reasonable time dispose of the business before the court, it is necessary that this order be made:

'It is now ordered, that this cause be referred to Charles C. Montgomery, Esq., standing master in chancery, to take and hear the evidence offered by the respective parties and to make his conclusions as to the facts in issue and recommend the judgment to be entered thereon; the standing master in chancery is authorized and empowered to do all things and to make such orders as may be required to accomplish a full hearing on all matters of fact and law in issue in this cause; the objection of counsel for the defendant to the making of this order referring the cause to the master is hereby noted and an exception is allowed in favor of the defendant.'

Thereupon the defendant filed this petition asking a rule against the judge to show cause why a mandamus may not issue directing him to vacate the order of reference to the master and to place the causes on the calendar for trial in open court. He says that he is informed and believes that at some time prior to July 12, 1926, the judges of the United States District Court, Southern District of California, by mutual agreement, appointed Montgomery as standing master to try patent causes; that at the calling of the term calendar in July, 1926, and at divers times since, all the District Judges have announced in open court and in chambers that they would not personally try all causes involving patents for invention, but would refer substantially all such causes to said standing master; that the result is that the standing master has set up a court with an extensive docket; that the causes here in question are ordinary and extremely simple patent causes which can be quickly and expeditiously tried, as will appear from the records therein; that the principal reasons given for the action by the court is that patent causes sometimes require protracted trials, and that the court calendar is now, and has been for some years, rather congested, but that this condition is not exceptional, but quite usual in most of the District Courts, and promises to continue indefinitely. The petitioner avers that it has an established right under the equity rules to a trial in open court; that the petitioner has no other remedy than application to this court to act under the supervisory authority established by section 234 of the Judicial Code (Comp. St. § 1211), 1 Stat. at Large 80, and in accordance with Virginia v. Rives, 100 U. S. 313, 25 L. Ed. 667; that unless this application is granted, the litigants in patent causes in the Southern District of California will be forced at their own expense to maintain a patent court set up by the judges of the District Court and operating in defiance of the plain intent of the equity rules; that by thus singling out patent cases such judges have unjustly and arbitrarily discriminated against a certain class of litigants and sub- jected those litigants to unnecessary trouble and expense, because proceedings before a master are invariably protracted and expensive, and the cost of...