De Filippis v. Chrysler Corporation

• Decision Date: 11 February 1947
• Docket Number: No. 5,Docket 20011.,5
• Citation: 159 F.2d 478
• Parties: DE FILIPPIS v. CHRYSLER CORPORATION et al.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

159 F.2d 478 (1947)

DE FILIPPIS v. CHRYSLER CORPORATION et al.

No. 5, Docket 20011.

Circuit Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.

February 11, 1947.

William J. Rapp, of New York City (Samuel Hershenstein, Solomon Kaufman, and Robert A. Siebert, all of New York City, of counsel), for appellant.

John B. Cunningham, of New York City (Max W. Zabel, Edward C. Gritzbaugh, and Edward U. Dithmar, all of Chicago, Ill., of counsel), for appellees.

Before SWAN, AUGUSTUS N. HAND, and CLARK, Circuit Judges.

SWAN, Circuit Judge.

This is an action by Raymond de Filippis to recover for unjust enrichment resulting from the alleged appropriation by Borg-Warner Corporation¹ of confidential information. The action was commenced on March 14, 1940 in the state Supreme Court for the County of New York; it was removed to the federal court, and was tried without a jury.

The confidential information which the defendant is charged with appropriating was disclosed to it by the plaintiff in October 1931. This information consisted of a copy of the specifications and drawings of the plaintiff's patent application, dated June 11, 1929, for "automatic gearless transmission".² After keeping the documents nearly nine months, during which time they were studied by the defendant as shown by its letters, they were returned to the plaintiff with the statement that the defendant did not wish to spend money to develop the device. In March 1934 the defendant began manufacturing and selling an "overdrive" mechanism which the plaintiff asserts embodies a combination of elements disclosed in the specifications and drawings he had submitted in 1931. The trial judge concluded that the plaintiff disclosed nothing of novelty or patentability, and the defendant neither appropriated nor used anything disclosed to it by the plaintiff. Accordingly the complaint was dismissed on the merits, with an opinion which thoroughly discusses the facts and the law, D.C., 53 F.Supp. 977.

In his brief on appeal the plaintiff says that the accused device, like his own, employs the following combination of elements:

"1. Free-wheeling or over-running whereby the driven shaft is permitted or is enabled to overrun or rotate at a speed greater than that of the drive shaft at all speeds except the ultimate.

"2. Sliding shafts which effect a connection of the drive and driven shafts, at the ultimate speed.³

"3. A governor employing the principle of centrifugal force to effect the sliding of the shafts.

"4. A positive, non-overrunning connection of the drive and driven shafts in a fixed relationship at the ultimate speed."

Examination of the patent specifications and the schematic drawings, the only sources of information the defendant had, discloses that the portion of plaintiff's device shown in figure 1 of the drawings constitutes an "infinitely variable" gear shift. The driving shaft imparts a reciprocating motion by means of a crank and link to a rocker arm pivoted on a slidable fulcrum. The arm transfers this reciprocating motion to a yoke sliding on a stationary bar, which yoke is connected to pawls that turn a ratchet fixed to the driven shaft. In place of the pawl and ratchet mechanism, a cam and shoe clutch (a one-way, or overrunning clutch) is suggested as an alternative method. Either method — pawl and ratchet, cam and shoe — by its very nature must allow the driven shaft to rotate free while the pawl or the shoe is making its return stroke, and by the same token must allow the driven shaft to run faster than ("overrun") the drive shaft. This would mean, if the device were installed in a car, that the car could coast, or free-wheel automatically. In order to accomplish "infinitely variable" shifting, the fulcrum is moved along the rocker arm, thereby changing the leverage and mechanical advantage of this part of the system in a manner corresponding to shifting gears in a conventional transmission. During the movement of the fulcrum, the car would be undergoing a gradual change in leverage from low gear to high gear, but without the three marked stages present in the conventional transmission. The patent specifications provide that the fulcrum may be moved by "any suitable actuating means," and later state that "The invention can automatically control the speed of the driven shaft, for which purpose a governor 57 is provided." This, the sole mention of a governor, describes and portrays the governor as being connected up with the sliding fulcrum. Plaintiff does not claim that the defendant appropriated anything thus far described except the overrunning feature and the governor.

In figure 2 of plaintiff's drawing, the driven shaft is splined, and is axially (longitudinally) slidable to permit additional ratchets (or their equivalent, overrunning clutches) to be substituted when other ratios are desired or when reversing, and also to permit the driven shaft to be connected directly to the driving shaft "by any suitable clutch." Once the two shafts are connected directly, the overrunning clutch is by-passed or "locked out" and the car may not coast or free-wheel, but must either be driven by...