Houghton Mifflin Co. v. Stackpole Sons, 341.
| Decision Date | 17 July 1940 |
| Docket Number | No. 341.,341. |
| Parties | HOUGHTON MIFFLIN CO. v. STACKPOLE SONS, Inc., et al. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit |
Philip Wittenberg, of New York City, for appellants.
Hines, Rearick, Dorr & Hammond, of New York City (Archie O. Dawson, of New York City, of counsel), for appellee.
Before L. HAND, CHASE, and PATTERSON, Circuit Judges.
This court affirmed a temporary injunction in this case (Houghton Mifflin Co. v. Stackpole Sons, Inc., 2 Cir., 104 F. 2d 306), and the Supreme Court denied certiorari (308 U.S. 597, 60 S.Ct. 131, 84 L.Ed. ___). Thereupon, the plaintiff moved for summary judgment upon affidavits under Rule 56, Rules of Civil Procedure, 28 U.S.C.A. following section 723c, which the judge granted; the defendants appeal. Our earlier opinion states the general situation in detail, and we need not repeat what we said. The only question before us now is whether there is any issue, relevant to the merits of the case, which deserved trial. We have already decided that a person who was neither citizen nor subject of any government could take out a copyright. Therefore, the citizenship of Adolph Hitler is not a material issue; nor is it of the least consequence that the complaint alleged that he was a citizen of a state with whom the United States had reciprocal relations. The authorship of the both volumes of "Mein Kampf" is beyond dispute; indeed, we understand that it is conceded. The next issue is whether the German publisher had title to the literary property in the work. We held so before, thinking that it was proved well enough by the fact that the same house had published the original German edition of 1925 and 1927, and had copyrighted it in the United States. This is the edition which the defendant, Stackpole & Sons, used for the infringing translation. It is possible that before January, 1933, a German publisher might have made unauthorized use of the manuscript of "Mein Kampf"; but we held before, and we hold now, that, considering the author's power and position in Germany after that time, it would be unreasonable to suppose that anyone would have been allowed to do so. If then this publisher did in fact assume to assign its copyright in July, 1933, in accordance with the purported assignment attached to the complaint, we think that the plaintiff made out a case even for summary judgment. If it were possible to try out the issue of the German publisher's title in the ordinary way, more could be said for a trial, but of course it is not. No further light can be thrown upon it, and we should be in precisely the same position after a trial as at present.
That is not true, however, of the execution of the assignment of July 29, 1933. We have passed upon its legal effect, and upon its validity in spite of the...
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