Bantam Books, Inc. v. Melko, A--68
| Decision Date | 08 March 1954 |
| Docket Number | No. A--68,A--68 |
| Parties | BANTAM BOOKS, Inc. v. MELKO. |
| Court | New Jersey Supreme Court |
John B. Molineux, New Brunswick, for appellant (J. Randolph Appleby, III, Asst. Pros. for Middlesex County, South River, attorney).
Horace S. Manges, of the New York Bar, New York City, for respondent (Joseph Steiner, Newark, attorney).
By the voluntary acts of the plaintiff by submission to conferences before suit, the object of its suit was reduced to restoration of a single publication of the plaintiff, namely, The Chinese Room, to circulation. The defendant prosecutor's defenses were all related by him to laws of this State prohibiting and penalizing the advertising, offering for sale and selling of obscene matter. The Superior Court, Chancery Division, having found that the book in question was not criminally obscene, all other issues were rendered moot. This ordinarily would require dismissal here, inasmuch as the defendant prosecutor has not appealed from the determination that the specific book is not criminally obscene. The defendant prosecutor, however, complains about the breadth of the judgment. Without an expression of views upon the merits, the judgment is modified by exscinding paragraphs 1 through 9, inclusive, thereof and substituting thereof the following paragraph:
1. That the County Prosecutor of Middlesex County be and he hereby is enjoined from interfering with the right of the plaintiff to distribute and sell the book entitled The Chinese Room in Middlesex County.
As so modified the judgment of the Superior Court, Chancery Division, 25 N.J.Super. 292, 96 A.2d 47, is affirmed and the cause is remanded to that court for formal entry of the judgment as modified hereby.
For modification: Chief Justice VANDERBILT, and Justices HEHER, OLIPHANT, WACHENFELD, BURLING, JACOBS and BRENNAN--7.
Opposed: None.
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Bantam Books, Inc v. Sullivan, 118
...823 (D.C.N.D.Ohio 1953); Bantam Books, Inc. v. Melko, 25 N.J.Super. 292, 96 A.2d 47 (Chancery 1953), modified on other grounds, 14 N.J. 524, 103 A.2d 256 (1954); Dearborn Publishing Co. v. Fitzgerald, 271 F. 479 (D.C.N.D.Ohio 1921); Epoch Producing Corp. v. Davis, 19 Ohio N.P.,N.S., 465 (C.......
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United States v. Roth, 387
...enjoined, the injunction order was much modified on appeal; Bantam Books, Inc., v. Melko, 25 N.J.Super. 292, 96 A.2d 47, modified 14 N.J. 524, 103 A.2d 256. If, however, the prosecutor confines himself to a mere threat of prosecution, the traditional reluctance to restrain criminal prosecut......
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State v. Hudson County News Co.
...61, 109 A.2d 444 (App.Div.1954); Bantam Books, Inc. v. Melko, 25 N.J.Super. 292, 302, 96 A.2d 47 (Ch.Div.1953), modified 14 N.J. 524, 103 A.2d 256 (1954). In 1957 the American Law Institute submitted a proposed definition to the effect that a thing is to be considered obscene 'if, considere......
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State v. Hudson County News Co., A--14
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