Crowe v. M & M/Mars, a Div. of Mars Inc.

Decision Date11 July 1990
Citation577 A.2d 1278,242 N.J.Super. 592
PartiesThomas CROWE, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. M & M/MARS, A DIVISION OF MARS INCORPORATED, Defendant-Third-Party Plaintiff, Respondent-Cross-Appellant, v. SPARTAN DESIGN INCORPORATED, Third-Party Defendant-Cross-Respondent.
CourtNew Jersey Superior Court — Appellate Division

John B. Collins, for plaintiff-appellant (Bongiovanni & Collins, Denville, attorneys).

Denise H. Pappas, for defendant-third-party plaintiff, respondent-cross-appellant (Courter, Kobert, Laufer, Purcell & Cohen, Morristown, attorneys).

Joseph J. Vanecek, Wayne, for third-party defendant-cross-respondent.

Before Judges MICHELS, R.S. COHEN and BROCHIN.

The opinion of the court was delivered by

R.S. COHEN, J.A.D.

If a person is employed to invent for the employer, a resulting invention belongs to the employer. If a person who is employed to perform other functions conceives and develops an invention during working hours with the aid of fellow employees and with the use of the employer's materials and machinery, the invention belongs to the employee but the employer has an irrevocable but non-exclusive right to use it. This is the "shop right" rule. Kinkade v. N.Y. Shipbuilding Corp., 21 N.J. 362, 369, 122 A.2d 360 (1956); United States v. Dubilier Condenser Corp., 289 U.S. 178, 53 S.Ct. 554, 77 L.Ed. 1114 (1933), opinion amended in an immaterial respect, 289 U.S. 706, 53 S.Ct. 687, 77 L.Ed. 1462 (1933); 9 Williston on Contracts, § 1016, p 111 (3rd ed. 1967). The issue presented by this case is whether the shop right rule defeats an action to recover in quantum meruit for a manufacturer's use of a device invented by a person who was not employed by the manufacturer but whose employer placed him in the manufacturer's plant on a long-term basis, at the manufacturer's request and expense, to work with employees of the plant to serve its needs. We hold that the shop right rule does apply, and that therefore the Law Division judge properly granted the manufacturer's motion for summary judgment.

In deciding defendant's motion, the Law Division judge accepted, as he had to do, the following facts favoring plaintiff's claim.

Plaintiff Thomas Crowe is a licensed mechanical engineer, employed by third-party defendant, Spartan Design. Spartan had an on-going contractual relationship with defendant M & M/Mars for Spartan to furnish engineering and design personnel from time to time at M & M/Mars's plant as needed to assist in various M & M/Mars engineering projects. The personnel were intended to remain independent contractors or Spartan employees, but not to become employees of M & M/Mars. They were paid by Spartan which billed M & M/Mars, and they had no employment contract with M & M/Mars.

Plaintiff Crowe was at M & M/Mars' plant from February 1, 1983, through June 3, 1985, engaged in various projects having to do with plant maintenance and production machinery. While much of plaintiff's daily work was self-directed, he worked with M & M/Mars personnel and under an M & M/Mars employee, Wayne Najduch.

One of the projects which occupied plaintiff was Project 131. It was a continuous system designed to spray a chocolate coating onto various candies. The Project 131 team included M & M/Mars employees and representatives of Omni Systems, Inc., which had produced components of the chocolate spray system. Plaintiff's first assignment as a member of the Project 131 team was to design a spraying arm compatible with the spray tub into which the candies went to be coated.

Significantly impeding satisfactory production on the chocolate spray system were the continually failing pumps. There were twelve of them, furnished by Omni Systems. They were a constant problem, an object of repeated improvement attempts by the team, and one of plaintiff's functions was to increase the production achieved by the pumps. After a particular team meeting at which the shortcomings of the pumps were a central discussion issue, plaintiff focused his work efforts on improving them, with the approval and under the direction of Wayne Najduch.

Plaintiff conceived of a new pump--not an alteration of the Omni pump, but a new design. His initial idea came to him at home. He went to Najduch and told him he thought he could design a better pump. Najduch told him to submit some drawings for review. Najduch approved the drawings and had plaintiff go to Henry Schwager, an M & M/Mars machinist, to fabricate a prototype. The drawings and fabrication utilized M & M/Mars personnel, materials and machinery, and also plaintiff's time for which it was paying Spartan.

Two prototypes were built and installed in the chocolate spray system. They worked so well that M & M/Mars decided to switch over completely to the newly designed pumps. Omni Systems built the new pumps. As a result of their use, the chocolate spray system is a success.

M & M/Mars does not concede the accuracy of this account. Among other things, it contends that plaintiff was only a member of a team that worked on the problem pump, that plaintiff's work merely contributed with the work of other team members to the modification, and that the new pump was not an invention but rather an improvement of just the sort that plaintiff was there to make.

M & M/Mars, however, concedes plaintiff's version for the purpose of its motion for summary judgment based on the shop right rule. The reason is that plaintiff's sole claim is for quantum meruit recovery for the production use by M & M/Mars of the pump he says he invented. Such a claim is defeated if the shop right rule is applicable, that is, if the invention was conceived and developed during working hours with the aid of the employer's personnel and with the use of the employer's materials and machinery. In that case, the employer has the irrevocable non-exclusive right to use the invention.

It does not matter that the idea may first occur to the inventor at home while pondering the employer's problems, if the remaining conditions are satisfied for application of the shop right rule. If it made a difference, no one would ever have an inventive idea until safely at home. Plaintiff in Kinkade v. N.Y. Shipbuilding Corp. conceived his invention at home. The Supreme Court concluded that that fact was of no moment. 21 N.J. 362, 371, 122 A.2d 360 (1956).

Here every predicate for application of the shop right rule is concededly present, save one. That one is that plaintiff was not, at least not obviously, an M & M/Mars employee. Plaintiff argues the shop right rule therefore does not apply. We disagree.

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5 cases
  • MacDougall v. Weichert
    • United States
    • New Jersey Supreme Court
    • June 10, 1996
    ...properly varies with the varying consequences of the determination, and the public policies engaged." Crowe v. M & M/Mars, 242 N.J.Super. 592, 598, 577 A.2d 1278 (App.Div.), certif. denied, 122 N.J. 387, 585 A.2d 389 (1990). The categorization of a working relationship depends not on the no......
  • Kopin v. Orange Products, Inc.
    • United States
    • New Jersey Superior Court — Appellate Division
    • February 10, 1997
    ...judgment on the ground that plaintiff's quantum meruit claim was barred by the shop right rule as discussed in Crowe v. M & M/Mars, 242 N.J.Super. 592, 577 A.2d 1278 (App.Div.), certif. denied, 122 N.J. 387, 585 A.2d 389 (1990). The trial court agreed and granted the motion. The trial court......
  • Caputo v. Nice-Pak Products, Inc., NICE-PAK
    • United States
    • New Jersey Superior Court — Appellate Division
    • April 22, 1997
    ...held that dismissal of the unjust enrichment count was compelled by the "shop right" rule as applied in Crowe v. M & M/Mars, 242 N.J.Super. 592, 594-95, 577 A.2d 1278 (App.Div.), certif. denied, 122 N.J. 387, 585 A.2d 389 (1990). He interpreted the "shop right" rule to mean that, when a con......
  • Kennedy v. Weichert Co.
    • United States
    • New Jersey Superior Court — Appellate Division
    • February 9, 2023
    ... ... Kennedy v. Weichert Co. , No. A-0518-19 (App. Div ... July 2, 2021) (slip op. at 2). Plaintiff alleged ... Check Cashing Serv., Inc. v. Dep't of Banking ... &Ins., 237 N.J. 482, 489 ... at 388 (quoting ... Crowe v. M &M/Mars , 242 N.J.Super. 592, 598 ... (App. Div ... ...
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