Illinois Cent Co v. Turrill Michigan Co v. Same

• Decision Date: 28 January 1884
• Citation: 110 U.S. 301,4 S.Ct. 5,28 L.Ed. 154
• Parties: ILLINOIS CENT. R. CO. v. TURRILL, Adm'x, etc. MICHIGAN S. & N. I. R. CO. v. SAME
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

110 U.S. 301

4 S.Ct. 5

28 L.Ed. 154

ILLINOIS CENT. R. CO. v. TURRILL, Adm'x, etc.

MICHIGAN S. & N. I. R. CO.

v. SAME.

January 28, 1884.

Geo. Payson, for railroad companies.

Chauncey Smith and L. L. Bond, for administratrix.

WAITE, C. J.

The effect of the judgments in these cases, when here on the former appeals, as reported under the name of The Cawood Patent, 94 U. S. 695, was to affirm the decrees then appealed from, so far as they charged these appellants respectively with the profits made from the use of the infringing machines known as the 'Illinois Central,' the 'Etheridge,' and the 'Whitcomb,' and to reverse as to the profits made by the use of the 'Bayonet Vise,' the 'Michigan Southern,' and the 'Beebee & Smith,' which were adjudged to be non-infringing machines. The total amount of profits arising from the use of all the machines, infringing and non-infringing, was settled, and the judgment of the courts was that the profits had properly been estimated by comparing the cost of mending on the machines with the cost of mending on a common anvil. This was found to be about 36 cents per foot mended in favor of the machines. Page 709. Nothing was left open for further inquiry but the amounts of the former recoveries for the use of the non-infringing machines. It was quite right, therefore, for the circuit court, when the cases went back, to direct the master to ascertain from the old evidence, if possible, and, if not, from new, how much should be deducted from the old decrees on account of the erroneous recoveries. The true way of determining this clearly was to find out what part of the profits for which the original decrees were rendered had been made by the use of the non-infringing machines. This the master attempted to do, and in the case of the Illinois Central company there is no doubt in our minds that the conclusion he reached was entirely correct. In fact, we do not understand that this is disputed. It is argued that a sufficient allowance was not made in the accounting for cut rails, but that question was settled by the original decree, and could not be re-examined on this reference. The inquiry now is limited to the amount of mending done by the use of the non-infringing machines and its comparative cost.

In the case of the Michigan Southern & Northern Indiana Company, the evidence is not as satisfactory as in that of the Illinois Central. The shop books in which the accounts for repairing rails were kept, if kept at all, were not produced, and had probably been destroyed as of no value before the accounting took place. In their absence it is difficult to determine with accuracy what the facts were, but upon full consideration we are satisfied the circuit...