Merrimac Mattress Mfg. Co. v. Feldman

• Decision Date: 03 November 1904
• Docket Number: 1,744.
• Citation: Merrimac Mattress Mfg. Co. v. Feldman, 133 F. 64 (D. Mass. 1904)
• Parties: MERRIMAC MATTRESS MFG. CO. v. FELDMAN.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Massachusetts

133 F. 64

MERRIMAC MATTRESS MFG. CO. v. FELDMAN.

No. 1,744.

United States Circuit Court, D. Massachusetts.

November 3, 1904

Milton E. Robinson and James E. Young, for complainant.

Roberts & Mitchell, for defendant.

HALE District Judge.

This suit is for infringement of claims 5, 6, 7, and 8 of letters patent of the United States, No. 667,916, issued February 12 1901, to the complainant, on the invention of Eugene R Leighton, for a new and useful improvement in couch-beds. The same claims of the patent have already been before this court in Merrimac Mattress Manufacturing Company v. Brown, 122 F. 87. In that case there was no argument by the defendant, but the court made a full examination of the matter brought before it in the record, and decided, upon a careful examination of the specification and claims, that there was sufficient in them to constitute invention. Anticipation was the leading defense upon which testimony was offered, but the testimony on this point was vague and unsatisfactory, and was not persuasive to the court. The claims now at issue are as follows:

'(5) An interconvertible couch-bed, comprising two complete interlocking laterally sliding sections, each having all of its parts, including the mattress support, permanently connected, the sections being relatively constructed, and arranged to permit their separation into two independent beds without dismantling either of them.

'(6) An interconvertible couch-bed, comprising two complete interlocking sections, adapted to be nested one within the other, each section having side-bars, end-bars, and legs, all permanently connected together, and each section being separable from the other into an independent bed.

'(7) An interconvertible couch-bed, comprising two complete, independent metallic beds, adapted to be arranged in interlocking relation with the legs of one bed between the side-bars of the other bed, and the end-bars of the first-mentioned bed above the side-bars of the second-mentioned bed, all without disconnecting any of the parts of either of said beds.

'(8) An interconvertible couch-bed, comprising two complete, independent beds, each having side-bars, legs, end-bars and a mattress stretched between said end-bars, all of said parts being permanently connected together, said beds being adapted to be arranged in telescoping interlocking relation, with the legs and the end-bars of one bed located respectively between the side-bars and the side-bar and the mattress of the other bed, whereby one bed may be moved laterally a limited distance relatively to the other bed, or may be completely separated therefrom, without dismantling any of the parts of either.'

The object of the invention is shown by the specification to be:

'To provide an article which can be converted from a bed to a couch, and vice versa, without the employment of operating mechanism, or other power-transmitting devices, whereby said article may be greatly simplified in construction.'

The inventor further describes his invention as follows:

'Referring to the drawings, it will be seen that the' couch-beds are constructed in two sections, one of which telescopes within the other, and I shall refer to them as the 'main section,' and the 'sliding section,' respectively. * * * As thus far described, the main frame is capable of use by itself without the addition of the sliding frame. The sliding frame is also capable of use by itself, and it may be disconnected from the main frame. * * * By tilting the inner sides of the two sections, the sections may be separated without dismantling either of them; being each a complete bed without further additions. This is a new feature with me, for, as far as I am aware, I am the first to have provided an interconvertible couch-bed comprising two interlocking nesting sections, which may be separated without dismantling either of them; and each of which, when separated, forms an independent bed. * * * From this description, it will be seen that the article described may be converted from a bed to a couch, and vice versa, by simply moving the sliding section laterally; and, as each section is supported independently of the other, little or no effort is required to move the sliding section upon its own casters. One of the wire mattresses is one a place a little below the other, but the hair or cotton mattress which is placed upon them may be thicker upon one side than the other, to compensate for the difference in height of the two spring mattresses.'

This case came on for final hearing before the court some months ago, and was reopened in order to introduce newly-discovered evidence relating to anticipation. That evidence is now before us. The defendant urges that one Adrian De Piniec-Mallet was the prior inventor, and that this priority is fatal to the patent. It is necessary for the court to consider this proposition in its aspect of fact and of law. Leighton reduced his invention to practice early in the fall of 1899, and afterwards embodied that invention in the patent in suit. It is claimed that Mallet reduced his invention to practice in October 1898; but it is insisted by the complainant that the construction made by Mallet in 1898 was not identical with the invention of Leighton, that it was never in fact reduced to practice, and that the facts relating to it wer not such as to make it available to the complainant against the patent founded upon the Leighton invention. This renders it necessary to examine with care the evidence upon the subject. The testimony tends to show that Mallet and his wife kept a boarding house in the summer time at Bensonhurst, Long Island. Mallet testifies that in the spring of 1893 he conceived the entire invention involved in this patent. He says he found that if two mattresses or mattress frames of the ordinary wire fabric construction, one a little shorter and lower than the other, were placed alongside each other, the shorter could be inserted or nested in the larger, so that its wire fabric might slide between the wire fabric and the side rail of the larger. He produces sketches which he says he made in 1893 of the construction in question. The testimony tends to show that he disclosed his invention to certain persons in 1894 and 1895, and that in 1895 he made a model which he produces in court. This appears to be the model of an interconvertible couch-bed, comprising two complete, interlocking, laterally sliding sections. In October, 1898, Mallet took some of the cot frames which he had in his boarding house into his yard, and made an embodiment of his invention, which he has produced, and which we have now before us. This construction consists of a short cot, which is made to slide, legs and all, in between the mattress and side rails of a larger cot. The construction appears to be substantially an interconvertible couch-bed, comprising two 'complete, interlocking, laterally sliding sections.' After making this construction, Mallet testifies that he slept upon it as a single bed, and also tried it as a double bed. Frederick Tworger, a grocer, testifies that he saw Mallet complete the bed in his back yard in 1898; and he recognizes the exhibit, which is produced in court, as the one which he then saw. He says that he himself, in October, 1898, was shown by Mallet how the bed worked, and that he pulled it out, and closed it up, and tried the bed himself. He says substantially that Mallet admitted that the structure was crude, but, 'if it was made out of metal, it would fit more closely. ' Louis Baer testifies that in the fall of 1898 he saw in Mallet's house the extensible couch-bed; that Mallet explained it to him, and told him how it worked; and that he had previously seen the model of the bed. Mrs. Marie Mitchell testifies that she visited the Mallets in the spring of 1899, just before Easter, and saw the bed as now in evidence; that Mallet explained to her the bed and its operation, and that she and her little girl slept upon it on the night of her visit to the Mallets in the spring of 1899, the little girl using the shorter of the two beds; that the beds were extended as a double bed. A housemaid named Nielson, who worked for Mallet in the spring of 1899, testifies that during that time she slept in the Mallet house on a part of the double cot bed which is now produced in court, and that another housemaid slept in the same room on the other section of the same bed. Isidor Goldsmith, a butcher, testifies that in the summer of 1899 he saw Mallet's couch-bed. He describes how Mallet shows him the combination of the two sections of the bed. Mrs. Mallet, the wife, testifies as to the construction by Mallet of the bed produced in court, and that it is now unchanged from its condition when it was made in 1898, except that it shows some age and marks from wear and tear. She corroborates Mallet in respect to the instance of Mrs. Mitchell and her daughter...