Union Tool Co v. Wilson

• Decision Date: 15 May 1922
• Docket Number: No. 132,132
• Citation: 66 L.Ed. 848,42 S.Ct. 427,259 U.S. 107
• Parties: UNION TOOL CO. v. WILSON
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

259 U.S. 107

42 S.Ct. 427

66 L.Ed. 848

UNION TOOL CO.

v WILSON.

No. 132.

Argued March 1, 2, 1922.

Decided May 15, 1922.

Messrs Frederick S. Lyon and A. V. Andrews, both of Los Angeles, Cal., Melville Church, of Washington, D. C., and William K. White, of San Francisco, Cal., for petitioner.

Messrs. G. Benton Wilson, of Los Angeles, Cal., and F. W. Clements, of Washington, D. C., for respondent.

Mr. Justice BRANDEIS delivered the opinion of the Court.

Wilson sued the Union Tool Company in the federal court for the Southern district of California, Southern division, for infringement of a patent for underreamers. He obtained a decree for an injunction and an accounting (237 Fed. 847), which was affirmed by the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (249 Fed. 736, 161 C. C. A. 646), and a petition for a writ of certiorari was denied by this court (248 U. S. 559, 39 Sup. Ct. 6, 63 L. Ed. 421). Thereafter a writ of injunction issued, which forbade the manufacture and sale, not only of infringing machines, but also of parts or elements that might be used in combination to effect infringement.

Wilson claimed that there had been deliberate violation of the injunction, both by the sale of infringing machines and by the sale of spare parts, and he moved in the District Court that the company and certain of its officers be punished for contempt or otherwise dealt with for violating it. The District Court found that, since the service of the injunction, the company had sold infringing machines, held it guilty of contempt in so doing, ordered that the company pay to the clerk of the court $5,000 as a fine, and that out of this sum $2,500 be paid to Wilson 'as a reasonable portion of the expenses incurred' by him in the contempt proceeding, and further ordered that, if the fine were not paid within 20 days, Double, the company's president, be committed to jail, to be there confined until it should be paid. The District Court also found that the company had sold, after the service of the injunction, spare parts to be used with machines or devices sold by the company prior thereto, and that these were of such a nature that when used in combination they would effect an infringement. But the court concluded, for reasons to be stated, that the sale of such spare parts should not subject the company to a fine, and purged it of contempt in that respect, without prejudice to the right of Wilson to renew his application.

To have this judgment entered in the contempt proceeding reviewed by the Court of Appeals, the company and Double sued out a writ of error, and thereafter Wilson sued out a cross-writ of error. The two writs were considered and disposed of separately. On the original writ the judgment was modified by striking out all that related to Double, and it was reversed in so far as it 'directed that $2,500 be paid to the clerk of the court as a punishment of the corporation.' But in so far as the judgment directed payment to Wilson as compensation, it was affirmed. 262 Fed. 431. On the cross-writ, which was heard and decided later, the Court of Appeals overruled a motion to dismiss for want of jurisdiction, held the company guilty of contempt in selling the spare parts, held that the District Court had abused its discretion in purging the company of this contempt, reversed, in that respect, the judgment, and remanded it, with directions to the District Court to impose such punishment as might seem proper. 265 Fed. 669. A motion of the company for leave to file a petition for mandamus to compel the Court of Appeals to vacate its judgment on the cross-writ of error and to dismiss the latter was denied by this court. 254 U. S. 608, 41 Sup. Ct. 12, 65 L. Ed. 436. But a petition for a writ of certiorari was granted to review the reversal of the judgment in so far as it purged petitioner of contempt in selling the spare parts. 254 U. S. 624, 41 Sup. Ct. 14, 65 L. Ed. 444. And it is that alone which is now here for review.

The contention that the Court of Appeals was without jurisdiction of the cross-writ of error is renewed here. It is argued that the judgment for contempt, so far as now sought to be reviewed, is remedial, not punitive; that being remedial, it can be reviewed only on appeal, and not on writ of error; that an appeal will not lie until after the final decree; and that no final decree had been entered, as the accounting was still in process. It is true that the part of the judgment for contempt now under review is remedial. But it does not follow that the Court of Appeals lacked jurisdiction to review it on the cross-writ of error. The District Court entered a single order, part remedial, part punitive. Where a fine is imposed, partly as compensation to the complainant and partly as punishment, the criminal feature of the order is dominant and fixes its character for purposes of review. In re Merchants' Stock Co., Petitioner, 223 U. S. 639, 32 Sup. Ct. 339, 56 L. Ed. 584. If the company had acquiesced in the judgment entered, Wilson, having no right to initiate a review of the punitive part, could not have instituted any appellate proceeding until after final decree. Matter of Christensen Engineering Co., 194 U. S. 458, 24 Sup. Ct. 729, 48 L. Ed. 1072; Doyle v. London Guarantee & Accident Co., Limited, 204 U. S. 599, 27 Sup. Ct. 313, 51 L. Ed. 641. See also Alexander v. United States, 201 U. S. 117, 122, 26 Sup. Ct. 356, 50 L. Ed. 686. But an order punishing one criminally for contempt, is a final judgment The contemnor may obtain immediately a review by writ of error. Bessette v. W. B. Conkey Co., 194 U. S. 324, 336-338, 24 Sup. Ct. 665, 48 L. Ed. 997. And the company availed itself of this right. When the order was thus brought before the Court of Appeals, it acquired, at the company's instance, jurisdiction to review that part which was civil as well as that which was criminal in its nature. In the exercise of that jurisdiction it granted, in respect to Double, relief which affected both the criminal and the civil parts of the order. If a cross-writ of error had not been filed, Wilson could not have secured from the Court of Appeals relief in respect to that part of the order which was unfavorable to him. Bolles v. Outing Co., 175 U. S. 262, 268, 20 Sup. Ct. 94, 44 L. Ed. 156. But a cross-writ was duly filed, and that enabled the court to review the portion of the order, civil in its nature, which Wilson alleged to be erroneous; for the judgment in the contempt proceeding was a unit. The case resembles in some respects Mayer v. Walsh, 108 U. S. 17, 1 Sup. Ct. 417, 27 L. Ed. 635; Walsh v. Mayer, 111 U. S. 31, 37, 38, 4 Sup. Ct. 260, 28 L. Ed. 338. Compare Field v. Barber Asphalt Co., 194 U. S. 618, 620, 621, 24 Sup. Ct. 784, 48 L. Ed. 1142. The facts relating to the sale of spare parts were agreed, and the question before the court was merely as to their legal effect. That...