Felburn v. New York Central Railroad Company
| Decision Date | 31 August 1965 |
| Docket Number | No. 15897.,15897. |
| Citation | 350 F.2d 416 |
| Parties | John Phil FELBURN, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. The NEW YORK CENTRAL RAILROAD COMPANY, and Fruehauf Trailer Company, Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit |
Albert R. Teare, Cleveland, Ohio (Donald A. Teare, Teare, Fetzer & Teare, Cleveland, Ohio, Michael Williams, Warren, Ohio, on the brief), for appellant.
William C. Conner, New York City (Curtis, Morris & Safford, New York City, John F. Dolan, Cleveland, Ohio, on the brief), for appellee.
Before O'SULLIVAN and McALLISTER, Circuit Judges, and ARTHUR M. SMITH, Associate Judge.*
This is an appeal from a judgment of the District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, Eastern Division (Connell, C. J., presiding), dismissing plaintiff Felburn's complaint. 225 F.Supp. 991.
Felburn's complaint alleged infringement of two United States patents, Nos. 2,693,8891 and 3,002,6362 (hereinafter '889 and '636, respectively) which were issued to and are owned by Felburn. Defendants denied the allegations of infringement and also raised the affirmative defense of invalidity of both patents. 35 U.S.C. § 282. After conclusion of the trial, the District Court adopted, essentially in toto, the findings of fact and conclusions of law proposed by defendants and held 1) that defendants had infringed none of the claims of either patent, and 2) that both patents were invalid.
Before reviewing the questions of validity raised on this appeal, we shall summarize briefly the subject matter of the patents in issue.
The '889 patent discloses and claims a semi-trailer and tractor assembly in which the load-carrying platform or base of the trailer can be detached from its wheel assembly or bogie, thereby freeing the bogie and tractor for other uses while the trailer is awaiting loading, unloading or repairs. As pointed out in the specification:
The system operates as follows: The rear end of the trailer is provided with a cam surface which is engageable with a bumper block located at the edge of a platform, such as a loading dock or railroad flat car. The platform is of a vertical height slightly above that of the trailer base, so that the tractor may back the trailer against the bumper block to cam the rear portion of the trailer up onto the bumper block and remove its weight from the bogie. The underside of the trailer base is provided with tracks extending the full length of the body to permit longitudinal sliding movements of the bogie. A hitch means connects the front end of the bogie to the rear end of the tractor so that after the rear end of the trailer has been backed onto the bumper block, the tractor may be driven away, pulling the bogie along the tracks at the underside of the trailer and out from under the front end of the trailer. Removable jacks are provided to support the front end of the trailer after removal of the tractor and bogie, the jacks being spaced at the outer sides of the trailer to permit the bogie to be withdrawn between them.
Although Felburn's complaint alleged infringement broadly, the District Court noted that, of the four claims of patent '889, only claim 3 is here in suit. We have broken down claim 3 and added reference letters and numerals for ease of analysis:
The '636 patent claims a method of transferring the base or bed of a semi-trailer to a railway flat car. The method is related to the '889 patent in that it can be used with detachable-bogie, tractor-trailer assemblies of the type therein described. Again, infringement was broadly alleged in the complaint, but the District Court indicated that, of the fifteen claims of the patent, only claims 1, 3, 4, 11, 12, 14 and 15 were in issue.
Claim 1 is descriptive of one embodiment of the invention and reads (reference letters and breakdown ours):
From an examination of the foregoing claim, and in particular its preamble, which describes many of the structural features needed to carry out the claimed method, it seems quite apparent that the trailer assembly described and claimed in the '889 patent would serve quite well in such a system, with certain structural modifications. It would be only necessary to equip the trailer base with a swivel means, for registry with the corresponding swivel means on the flat car, and with a king pin, for locking the trailer base in place once it is positioned on the flat car.
Claims 3 and 4 are very similar to claim 1 and need not be set forth in detail. Claim 11 defines essentially the same method, but in somewhat more general terms:
11. A method of making shipments through the utilization of rail and truck transportation and involving the use of a railway flat car and a semi-trailer having a load-carrying bed detachably connected at its front end to a tractor unit and having a stable multiple axle wheel unit provided with an upper portion detachably locked in position underneath the rear part of the bed whereby the latter is conjointly supported by said wheel and tractor units for movement along a roadway, said method including the steps of backing the semi-trailer by means of the tractor in a direction generally normal to the longitudinal axis of the railway flat car to a position wherein the rear end of said bed adjoins and is generally level with the adjacent upper surface of said flat car and wherein the rear set of wheels of said wheel unit adjoins the side of said flat car, stopping the backing movement of said tractor unit and unlocking said wheel unit from said load-carrying bed to permit relative movement therebetween, then continuing the backing movement of said tractor unit while said wheel unit is held stationary to push against the forward end of said bed and thereby move said bed smoothly over the horizontally stable upper portion of said stationary wheel unit and onto said flat car to transfer support of the load from said wheel unit to said flat car, the wheel unit by reason of its stability remaining horizontal and untilted and permitting unobstructed movement of said load-carrying bed relative to said wheel unit without considerable separation...
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