Sunbeam Corp. v. Ross-Simons, Inc.
| Decision Date | 24 July 1957 |
| Docket Number | ROSS-SIMON,I,No. 2558,2558 |
| Citation | 134 A.2d 160,86 R.I. 189 |
| Parties | SUNBEAM CORPORATION v.nc. Eq. |
| Court | Rhode Island Supreme Court |
James H. Donnelly and John B. Kelaghan, Providence, for complainant.
Sidney L. Rabinowitz, Providence, for respondent.
This is a bill in equity to enjoin the respondent from selling or offering for sale the complainant's products, specifically enumerated in the bill, in violation of the provisions of General Laws 1938, chapter 393, otherwise known as the Fair Trade Act. On the filing of the bill a temporary restraining order was entered and later, after a hearing, such order was continued in effect as a preliminary injunction pending a hearing of the cause on the merits. The form of the injunction was assented to by counsel for the respondent and was duly entered on May 1, 1956.
Thereafter on June 22, 1956 complainant filed a motion to adjudge respondent in contempt for violating said injunction. After a hearing in the superior court, the trial justice found as a fact that respondent had violated the injunction and he adjudged it in contempt. A decree to that effect was duly entered and respondent was therein given an opportunity to purge itself of such contempt 'by ceasing to make any sales in Rhode Island at less than the prices set forth in Supplement 54 (appended hereto as Appendix A) to Sunbeam Fair Trade Contracts in the State of Rhode Island, either on the respondent's premises or otherwise, including Cash on Delivery purchases.' The cause is here on respondent's appeal from that decree.
The respondent has filed twelve separate reasons of appeal, some of which are repetitious. However, we need concern ourselves with only three of them, namely, (4) that the decree appealed from is vague, uncertain and indefinite; (8) that the restraining order of April 19, 1956 which was continued in effect on May 1, 1956 is vague, indefinite and uncertain and therefore the trial justice erred in holding respondent in contempt thereof; and (12) that he erred in allowing respondent to purge itself only 'by ceasing to make any sales contrary to the fair trade provisions in the State of Rhode Island either on the premises or otherwise, including C.O.D. purchases.'
Those three reasons are basically predicated upon respondent's main contention that the retraining orders of April 19 and May 1 are ambiguous and therefore it cannot lawfully be adjudged in contempt thereof. The respondent also argues that the decree appealed from is erroneous for the same reason and for the further reason that it goes beyond the prayer of the bill and the terms of the restraining order of May 1 in requiring it to refrain from making sales 'either on the premises or otherwise, including C.O.D. purchases.'
In reply to those contentions complainant argues that they are in effect indirect attacks upon the validity of the restraining orders of April 19 and May 1 which respondent may not lawfully make because it formally assented thereto and did not appeal therefrom. There is no merit in that argument because its premise is faulty. The respondent is not attacking the validity of those restraining orders. It is maintaining merely that they are so indefinite and uncertain that they are not enforceable in the circumstances of this case by a judgment in contempt. The fact that respondent assented to them does not preclude it from claiming that such orders submit to an interpretation which leaves it free to act as it did in selling complainant's products. That such an interpretation is different from complainant's understanding of the force and effect of those orders only goes to show that they are lacking in precision. The respondent's interpretation need not be the more reasonable one. If it is reasonable then the restraining orders are ambiguous. In such a case respondent is unquestionably within its rights in raising that issue here in its defense to an adjudication for contempt.
Is the restraining order of May 1 ambiguous? The pertinent portion thereof reads that 'this respondent be enjoined from advertising, offering for sale or selling, in its place of business at 290 Westminster Street, Providence, Rhode Island, any products bearing Sunbeam Corporation's name or trade-marks at less than the prices stipulated pursuant to Sunbeam Retailer Fair Trade Contracts in force and effect with other retailers in the State of Rhode Island; from making any allowance, gift, rebate or concession in connection with the advertising, offering for sale or selling, in respondent's said place of business, of any of said commodities at less than said prices.' (Italics ours.)
The respondent contends that such injunction submits to two interpretations as follows: 1. That respondent is enjoined from advertising for sale in its place of business, offering for sale or selling in said place any of complainant's products at less than fair trade prices. 2. That respondent is enjoined from advertising in its place of business, selling therein, or offering to sell therein whether the sale be made therein or elsewhere, at less than fair trade prices. It contends that the first interpretation is the proper one and that the entire context of the injunction was intended to prevent any sale in its place of business or any offer to make such sale therein. It further contends that it complied with its understanding of the terms of the injunction and did not sell or offer to sell therein any of complainant's products at less than the fair trade price, but it concedes that it did make two sales at less than such price outside of its place of business.
The undisputed evidence is that Mrs. Mary Dropot and Mrs. Mary A. Little each purchased from respondent an electric frying pan at less than the fair trade price. Each sale occurred in the following manner. Mrs. Dropot went to respondent's place of business and asked for a Sunbeam frying pan. The salesman told her they had one for sale but he could not sell it there but it could be delivered at her home and sold to her there for cash on delivery. The respondent accepted Mrs. Dropot's offer to purchase the frying pan by delivering it to her the next day at her home and receiving payment at that time.
Mrs. Little's purchase was consummated under somewhat different circumstances. She went to respondent's place of business seeking a Sunbeam frying pan and offered to pay for one on delivery at her home....
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