Dezendorf v. Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corp., 1173-C.
| Decision Date | 29 January 1940 |
| Docket Number | No. 1173-C.,1173-C. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Southern District of California |
| Parties | DEZENDORF v. TWENTIETH CENTURY-FOX FILM CORPORATION. |
James M. Naylor, of San Francisco, Cal., and Calvin L. Helgoe, of Los Angeles, Cal., for plaintiff.
Alfred Wright, of Los Angeles, Cal., for defendant.
The plaintiff's play and the defendant's motion picture were both written for the use of the child actress, Shirley Temple. It is not unnatural, therefore, that they should have common features. These they have: An orphaned American child in China, missionaries, bandit raids, protection of the child by an individual who happens to be a bachelor, the influence of the child as an agency in the marriage of her protector and a woman. These are all, however, situations that are not in themselves subject to copyright.
An exhibition of defendant's picture shows the introduction of features and a treatment of the subjects so widely different from that appearing in plaintiff's play as to force the conviction that, except as to the general nature of the subject, there is no substantial similarity. It is obvious that the picture is not a copy of plaintiff's play. Access on the part of the defendant corporation in the legal sense is shown, but there is nothing to indicate that the actual writers of the motion picture script had themselves seen the play.
Judgment must therefore be in favor of the defendant, and it is so ordered. Defendant will propose findings and judgment.
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De Montijo v. 20th Century Fox Film
...further analysis should be necessary to show that the film and the plaintiff's work have nothing in common. Dezendorf v. 20th Century Fox Film Corporation, D.C., 32 F. Supp. 359, affirmed, 9 Cir., 118 F.2d 561, March 20, The court finds that there was no evidence of any kind to show access ......
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Morrissey v. Procter & Gamble Company, 6882.
...of a charge of copying, cf. Pinci v. Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corp., S.D. N.Y., 1951, 95 F.Supp. 884; Dezendorf v. Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corp., S.D.Cal., 1940, 32 F.Supp. 359, aff'd, 9 Cir., 118 F.2d 561, on a motion for summary judgment a plaintiff should not have to go to the point......
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Dezendorf v. Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corp., 9589.
...850. Thereafter the case was tried and, finding no infringement, the District Court, on February 15, 1940, entered judgment for appellee. 32 F.Supp. 359. This appeal is from that Appellant contends that "in reversing the District Court on the first appeal, this court once and for all times ......
- In re Kalb, 15528.