Stentor Electric Mfg. Co. v. Klaxon Co.
| Decision Date | 13 April 1938 |
| Citation | 23 F. Supp. 351 |
| Parties | STENTOR ELECTRIC MFG. CO. v. KLAXON CO. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Delaware |
Clarence A. Southerland and Paul Leahy (of Ward & Gray), all of Wilmington, Del., for plaintiff.
Hugh M. Morris and Ivan Culbertson, both of Wilmington, Del., for defendant.
June 1, 1929, plaintiff brought this action on a license agreement made between the parties May 20, 1918. The agreement provides, inter alia, that defendant shall exploit certain patents and shall pay certain royalties to plaintiff under patent licenses granted by plaintiff to defendant. Payment of such royalties was to continue throughout the life of the patents, namely, until September 29, 1931. The breaches of the licenses for which plaintiff sues are alleged in these words: "* * * the said defendant, did not use, and at no time thereafter has used, its best efforts to further the manufacture and sale of the articles covered by said contract, and did not maintain, and at no time thereafter has maintained, an efficient organization for the manufacture and sale of said articles, but on the contrary thereof has wholly failed so to do; whereby and as a result whereof the said plaintiff has been and is deprived of large sums of money as royalties which would otherwise have been received by the said plaintiff under the said contract, and whereby the value of said patents and the value of the royalties reserved under said contract has been and is greatly lessened and depreciated, and has been and is wholly destroyed; to the damage of the said plaintiff," etc.
Defendant pleaded in abatement "that the said plaintiff was, by voluntary action, dissolved as a corporation created by and existing under and pursuant to the laws of the State of New York, a certificate of dissolution having been filed in the Office of the Secretary of State, Division of Corporations, of the said State of New York, on or about May 26, 1919, approximately ten years prior to the institution of the within cause of action, the said plaintiff being therefore without legal capacity to institute or maintain the within cause of action, and this it, the said defendant, is ready to verify; * * *."
The sole issue raised by the demurrer is the legal effect of the dissolution of plaintiff May 26, 1919.
Plaintiff is a New York corporation, and its right to institute and maintain this action is governed by the statutes of New York. Every statute of the state of New York relating to dissolved...
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Stensvad v. Ottman
... ... Treemond Co. v. Schering Corp., 3 Cir., 122 F.2d ... 702; Stentor Electric Mfg. Co. v. Klaxon Co., D.C., ... 23 F.Supp. 351; Fletcher Cyc ... ...
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Stentor Electric Mfg. Co. v. Klaxon Co.
...has no capacity to sue. The point was raised below by a plea in abatement to which a demurrer was sustained. Stentor Electric Mfg. Co. v. Klaxon Co., D.C.Del.1938, 23 F.Supp. 351. The defendant's contention arises out of the fact that on May 26, 1919, subsequent to the making of the contrac......