Buchanan v. General Motors Corporation
| Decision Date | 08 January 1947 |
| Docket Number | Docket No. 20287.,No. 34,34 |
| Citation | 158 F.2d 728 |
| Parties | BUCHANAN et al. v. GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit |
Pennie, Edmonds, Morton and Barrows, of New York City (Daniel V. Mahoney, of New York City, of counsel), for plaintiffs-appellants.
Drury W. Cooper and John N. Cooper, both of New York City, for defendant-appellee.
Before L. HAND, AUGUSTUS N. HAND and CHASE, Circuit Judges.
This appeal is from a summary judgment of the District Court for the Southern District of New York dismissing the complaint in a suit to recover royalties claimed due under a contract. It is the aftermath of a previous action brought by parties in privity with these appellants against the same defendant to recover royalties under the same contract and we will refer to our opinion on the former appeal, Mechanical Ice Tray Corporation v. General Motors Corporation, 2 Cir., 144 F.2d 720 to show what was decided when the judgment in that suit was in part affirmed and in part reversed.
The present action was commenced after final judgment had been entered in the former suit and the defendant pleaded that judgment at bar in addition to a general denial of liability for royalties. The trial judge held the former judgment res judicata and dismissed the complaint solely for that reason.
The pertinent facts which are not in dispute are that when the plaintiffs in the former action filed their complaint on September 26, 1941, they alleged that the defendant had failed to pay royalties as provided by the contract and demanded judgment for the entire amount which on an accounting should be found due. The royalties were for the manufacture and sale by the defendant of ice trays for mechanical refrigerators and were payable on all trays manufactured under any of the claims of the several patents mentioned in the contract. A grid placed in a pan made up a tray and whether royalties were to be paid depended upon the construction of the grid, the pans used being merely of a conventional type. While preparing to bring the action, the plaintiffs upon their request were informed by the defendant as to what types of, and how many, trays the defendant had manufactured. These trays, as made by the defendant, usually consisted of one pan and one grid though a smaller number were made with one pan in which were placed two grids separated by a divider. Except as to a comparatively few of the double grid trays which were reported for a short time when they were first made as two trays for royalty purposes, the defendant treated a pan with its grid or grids as one royalty unit and it did so in replying to the plaintiffs' request for information previous to the suit.
When that suit was brought the plaintiffs, consequently, did not know that the statements then relied on by them were based on what for present purposes may be called a one royalty unit whether the tray was double or single. However, while the suit was pending and about two months before it came on for trial accountants for the plaintiffs examined the defendant's books and records. They then discovered and reported to the plaintiffs' attorneys the facts concerning the trays with two grids and one pan which had been reported as single royalty units.
Nevertheless no effort was then made to recover two royalties on such trays in that suit which afterwards went to trial and final judgment. The present suit is to recover over and above the former judgment what would be due if the defendant is bound to account to the plaintiffs for two royalties on such double trays.
We do not find it necessary to decide whether such double trays would, under the royalty contract, require the payment of two royalties for we think the judgment below was right on the ground that the former judgment was res judicata.
It is tolerably clear that the complaint in that suit as originally...
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McLaughlin v. Penn Central Transportation Co.
...1965); Frost v. Bankers Commercial Corp., 11 F.R.D. 195 (S.D.N.Y.1951), aff'd, 194 F.2d 505 (2d Cir.1952). 35 See Buchanan v. General Motors Corp., 158 F.2d 728 (2d Cir. 1947). ...
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Weissinger v. United States
...121 F.2d 98, we believe this criterion is clearly incorrect. See Hatchitt v. United States, 9 Cir., 158 F.2d 754; Buchanan v. General Motors Corp., 2 Cir., 158 F. 2d 728; The B. & B. No. 10, 2 Cir., 121 F.2d 704; "Developments in the Law — Res Judicata," 65 Harv.L.Rev. 818, 826. We recogniz......
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Phoenix Canada Oil Co., Ltd. v. Texaco Inc.
...§§ 24, 25, and § 25 Comment b. Illus. 2 at 210-211.15 Buchanan v. General Motors Corp., 64 F.Supp. 16 (S.D.N.Y.1946), aff'd, 158 F.2d 728 (2d Cir.1947) is closely on point here. In Buchanan, plaintiff patent-holders brought an action to recover royalty payments due on the manufacture of pat......
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Sutcliffe Storage & Warehouse Co. v. United States, 4238-4241.
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