Phillips v. City of Detroit

• Decision Date: 05 May 1884
• Citation: 28 L.Ed. 532,111 U.S. 604,4 S.Ct. 580
• Parties: PHILLIPS and another, Ex'rs, etc. v. CITY OF DETROIT
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

111 U.S. 604

4 S.Ct. 580

28 L.Ed. 532

PHILLIPS and another, Ex'rs, etc. v. CITY OF DETROIT.

May 5, 1884.

Geo. H. Lothrop, for appellants.

D. C. Holbrook, E. A. West, and L. L. Bond, for appellees.

WOODS, J.

This was a suit in equity brought by Robert C. Phillips, Eugene Robinson, and Jesse H. Farwell, who were the exclusive licensees of Phillips for the state of Michigan, to restrain the defendant, the city of Detroit, from infringing letters patent granted to Phillips, December 5, 1871, for 'a new and useful improvement in street and other highway pavements.' The specification and claim of the patent were as follows: 'My improvement consists mainly in the use of wood of any suitable kind in its natural or undress state; that is, in the form of round blocks or sections of small trees or the branches of trees from which the bark has been removed, cut as nearly at right angles to their length as may be, generally in lengths of about six inches, their diameters varying from three to twelve inches. These are placed upon end upon a bed or foundation composed of a stratum or layer of broken stone about eight inches deep, upon which a course of coarse sand or gravel of, say, six inches in depth is spread, the whole properly rolled or rammed so as to be solid, and presenting an even or uniform surface for the blocks to rest upon. Upon this surface the blocks are placed upon end, as nearly together as may be, in such manner as to form an even or uniform surface. They are then rolled or rammed heavily, so as to force them well down upon the bed. The spaces or openings between the blocks are then filled with good, hard, coarse gravel and sand, and again rolled or rammed, after which the whole is covered with gravel or sand to a depth of about one inch, when the travel may be turned on. As stated above, these blocks may be composed of any suitable wood, but locust is preferred. White oak, white cedar, (arbor vitoe,) chestnut, yellow pine, and others afford good material. * * * I thus produce a pavement which can be laid as easily and with less expense than cobble-stone pavement, and which has been found in practice to be more durable than the most approved wooden pavement hitherto in use. I do not claim broadly the use of wooden blocks in the state in which they are cut from the tree or branches; nor yet do I claim the foundation of stone or gravel, and the filling of the spaces between the blocks with sand or gravel, separately considered; but what I do claim as my invention and desire to secure by letters patent is a wooden pavement composed of blocks of any desired wood, cut from the trunks or branches of trees or saplings of any desired length in their natural form, the bark only being removed, placed with their fibers vertical upon a bed of broken stone and gravel or sand, or either of them, the spaces between the blocks being filled with gravel or sand, the whole made compact by ramming, rolling, or other proper methods, as herein shown and described.' he answer of the defendant admitted that it had caused to be laid a pavement, such as is described in the patent of the complainants, and by way of defense alleged want of novelty in the improvement covered by the patent. Upon final hearing the circuit court dismissed the bill on the ground that, in view of the state of the art, the patent did not describe any patentable invention. From this decree the complainants appealed.

We think the decree of the circuit court was right. The patent purports to be for a combination. The alleged combination consists in a pavement formed by blocks of wood cut from the trunks or branches of trees, set with their fibers vertical upon a bed of broken stone, sand, or gravel, the spaces between the blocks being filled with sand or gravel. The kind of wood of which the blocks are composed, and their length and diameter, are immaterial. The placing of the blocks with their fibers vertical is shown to be an old method long antedating the patent, and is so obviously the only practicable mode of placing them that its suggestion in the patent cannot be called invention. The specification expressly disclaims, as a part of the patent, the use of wooden blocks in the state in which they are cut from the tree or its branches, the foundation of stone or gravel, and the filling of the spaces between the blocks with sand or gravel, separately considered. The only thing, therefore, left for the patent to cover is the bringing together of these three old and well-known elements in the construction of a pavement; namely, the wooden blocks, the...