Prather v. Neva Paperbacks, Inc., 30515.

• Decision Date: 22 June 1971
• Docket Number: No. 30515.,30515.
• Citation: 446 F.2d 338
• Parties: Richard S. PRATHER, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. NEVA PAPERBACKS, INC., et al., Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

446 F.2d 338 (1971)

Richard S. PRATHER, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. NEVA PAPERBACKS, INC., et al., Defendants-Appellees.

No. 30515.

United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

June 22, 1971.

Richard L. Horn, Miami, Fla., Allan Milledge, Milledge & Horn, Miami, Fla., for plaintiff-appellant.

Herbert T. Schwartz, Bennett, Schwartz & Schwartz, Gainesville, Fla., for defendant-appellee Stanley R. Schrag.

Burnett Roth, Miami Beach, Fla., for Neva Paperbacks, Inc.

Before WISDOM, Circuit Judge, DAVIS,^* Judge, and GOLDBERG, Circuit Judge.

GOLDBERG, Circuit Judge:

This is a copyright infringement suit in which the plaintiff alleges that the defendants' book, "Call Box," was plagiarized from several of plaintiff's novels. The trial court granted summary judgment for the defendants on the ground that 17 U.S.C.A. § 115(b),¹ the three year statute of limitations applicable to infringement actions, barred plaintiff's suit. Finding that the last publication of the alleged infringing work occurred in June, 1964, but that suit was not filed until August, 1969, the district court concluded:

"Thus, without deciding whether local equitable doctrines would apply to toll the applicable statute, there are no circumstances here sufficient to excuse plaintiff\'s lack of knowledge of the infringement, whether under the Florida rule or general equitable considerations."

Plaintiff appeals from this decision, claiming that the court should have applied the Florida Blameless Ignorance doctrine to toll the statute of limitations. Contending that under that doctrine there was a material issue of disputed fact, plaintiff argues that the district court's granting of defendants' motion for summary judgment was inappropriate. Agreeing with the determination of the district court, we affirm.

Appellant's contention rests primarily on the proposition that the Florida Blameless Ignorance rule should have been applied to toll the three year statute of limitations. We need not tarry over the substantive contents of the Florida doctrine, however, since we find it inapplicable to the present case. We base this conclusion on the legislative history of 17 U.S.C.A. § 115(b). Prior to 1957 there was no statute of limitations on civil suits relating to copyright infringement, and courts applied the law of the state in which the action was brought. This led to a wide divergence of time periods in which infringement suits could be brought in the various states and thus encouraged forum shopping. The Senate report on the bill which became the limitations statute leaves no doubt but that the purpose of the legislation incorporating the three year limitations period was to provide a uniform federal period of limitations applicable throughout the United States. 2 U.S. Code Cong. and Adm. News 1961 (1957). The report also makes it clear that the intent of the drafters was that the limitations period would affect the remedy only, not the substantive right, and that equitable considerations would therefore apply to suspend the running of the statute. Although the committee report mentions "equitable considerations of the locality" we think the drafters could not have intended that each court apply those equitable considerations peculiar to its locality since to do so would completely destroy the announced Congressional purpose of providing a federal statute of limitations uniform throughout the United States. We refuse to attribute to Congress by virtue of a single, ambiguous statement in the legislative history a purpose of undermining the very goal which it desired to reach. In speaking of "equitable considerations of the locality" Congress could logically have had reference only to the fact that general equitable considerations were available to toll the statute. These equitable considerations must be derived from general principles applicable to every federal forum, not those peculiar to a local jurisdiction, if the announced purpose of providing a uniform limitations period throughout the United States is to be achieved. In short, the federal statute seeks to nationalize the copyright statute of limitations, but if each state can fetter, condition, and entail its effect, we end with a parochial instead of a national statute. We refuse to so frustrate the Congressional goal of homogeneity. Consequently, we must reject plaintiff's contention that the Florida Blameless Ignorance Rule, which is after all only a peculiarly local doctrine, should be applied. Instead, we must look to general equitable principles to determine the proper disposition of this cause.

Under general equitable doctrines, once a defendant has shown that a claim is time barred by the applicable statute of limitations, it is incumbent upon the plaintiff, if he is to avoid the bar, to come forward and demonstrate that for some equitable reason the statute should be tolled in his case. Japanese War Notes Claimants Association of Philippines, Inc. v. United States, 1967, 373 F.2d 356, 178 Ct.Cl. 630; Crummer Co. v. DuPont, 5 Cir. 1958, 255 F.2d 425.

In the instant case plaintiff's only alleged excuse for failing to file a timely suit is that he was ignorant because the defendants concealed from him the existence of "Call Box" and prevented him from obtaining a copy of that book. The facts of this alleged concealment are undisputed. The plaintiff in an earlier infringement suit against these same defendants, see Prather v. Neva Paperbacks, 5 Cir. 1969, 410 F.2d 698, asked during discovery for a list of all of defendants' publications submitted by a particular author. "Call Box,"...