Snow v. Mast

• Decision Date: 04 August 1894
• Citation: 63 F. 623
• Parties: SNOW v. MAST et al.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of Ohio

63 F. 623

SNOW v. MAST et al.

United States Circuit Court, S.D. Ohio, Western Division.

August 4, 1894

Wood &amp Boyd, for complainant.

Keifer & Keifer, for respondents.

SAGE District Judge (orally).

The bill is for an injunction and account. It is founded upon the alleged infringement by defendants to three separate copyrights of photographs, with reference to each of which the complainant seeks to recover penalties for the violation of sections 4963, 4965, Rev. St. U.S. The complainants prays for an injunction, and that the defendants appear and answer all the averments of the bill,-- particularly, how many copies of each of said copyrighted photographs they have sold, and the number they have on hand,-- and that they may be ordered and decreed to render an account of the copies that they have sold, or in any wise disposed of, together with those on hand or under their control; also, that they may be ordered to surrender and deliver up the copies on hand or under their control, and the plates from which they were made, to an officer of the court, to be sold or destroyed and that they may be ordered to pay into court, to be distributed according to law, the damages established by law as the penalty for their aforesaid unlawful acts and doings and for other relief. The defendants demur to the bill generally for want of equity, and that the bill is multifarious, and for other reasons.

The demurrer will be sustained, and the bill dismissed. The complainant has a plain, adequate, and complete remedy at law, by an action. This consideration, of itself, disposes of the bill, under section 723, Rev. St. U.S., and under the general rule as to equity jurisdiction. In addition to this, section 860, Id., provides that no pleading of a party, nor any discovery or evidence obtained from him, whether as a party or witness, by means of a judicial proceeding in this or nay foreign country, shall be given in evidence, or in any manner used against him or his property or estate, in any court of the United States, in any criminal proceeding, or for the enforcement of any penalty or forfeiture. The defendants cannot be required to make disclosure, by answer or otherwise, of any fact upon which the claim against them may depend, nor can they be required to produce any books or papers which would subject them to a penalty. Johnson v. Donaldson, 3 Fed. 22. Even in a civil action for the recovery of a penalty, the...