United Fruit Co. v. Standard Fruit and Steamship Co., Civ. A. No. 67-703-G.
Decision Date | 01 April 1968 |
Docket Number | Civ. A. No. 67-703-G. |
Parties | UNITED FRUIT COMPANY, Plaintiff, v. STANDARD FRUIT AND STEAMSHIP COMPANY, Defendant. |
Court | U.S. District Court — District of Massachusetts |
Rowland V. Patrick, Boston, Mass., for plaintiff; William R. Hulbert, Fish, Richardson & Neave, Boston, Mass., of counsel.
Herbert P. Kenway, Kenway, Jenney & Hildreth, Boston, Mass., for defendant.
MEMORANDUM AND ORDER GRANTING PLAINTIFF'S MOTION FOR INJUNCTION AGAINST ANOTHER SUIT
In this action plaintiff United Fruit Company ("United"), a New Jersey corporation, alleges unfair competition by defendant Standard Fruit and Steamship Company ("Standard"), a Delaware corporation, in the latter's use of labels on its bananas which resemble labels used by plaintiff. Jurisdiction is based on 28 U.S.C. § 1331(a).
Plaintiff filed its complaint in the present action on September 19, 1967. Thereafter, on November 6, 1967, Standard brought an action in two counts against United and United Fruit Sales Corporation ("Sales"), a Delaware corporation and a wholly owned subsidiary of United, in the federal court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. In the first count of the Louisiana case Standard seeks a declaratory judgment under 28 U.S.C. § 2201 and the Trademark Act of 1946, 15 U.S.C. chapter 22, to the effect that Standard's labels do not infringe any valid trademark rights of United and Sales. In the second count, Standard charges United and Sales with unfair competition by means of various activities. Jurisdiction over the first count is based upon 28 U.S.C. § 1338(a), which provides that "the district courts shall have original jurisdiction of any civil action arising under any Act of Congress relating to patents, copyrights and trade-marks"; jurisdiction over the second count is based upon 28 U.S.C. § 1338(b), which provides that "the district courts shall have original jurisdiction of any civil action asserting a claim of unfair competition when joined with a substantial and related claim under the copyright, patent or trademark laws." The matter is presently before this court on plaintiff's motion to enjoin defendant from further proceeding with its action in the Eastern District of Louisiana pending final determination of the present action now before this court.
The primary consideration is whether the counts of the Louisiana action constitute compulsory counterclaims to the present action in that each "arises out of the transaction or occurrence that is the subject matter of the opposing party's claim." Fed.R.Civ.P. 13(a). This clause, together with its predecessors, has consistently been given a broad interpretation. In referring to the compulsory counterclaim provision of the old Equity Rule 30, the Supreme Court stated:
"Transaction" is a word of flexible meaning. It may comprehend a series of many occurrences, depending not so much upon the immediateness of their connection as upon their logical relationship. * * * Essential facts alleged by appellant plaintiff enter into and constitute in part the cause of action set forth in the counterclaim. That they are not precisely identical, or that the counterclaim embraces additional allegations * * * does not matter. To hold otherwise would be to rob this branch of the rule of all serviceable meaning, since the facts relied upon by the plaintiff rarely, if ever, are, in all particulars, the same as those constituting the defendant's counterclaim.
Moore v. New York Cotton Exchange, 1926, 270 U.S. 593, at 610, 46 S.Ct. 367, at 371, 70 L.Ed. 750. And, as Professor Moore has said, "Courts should give the phrase `transaction or occurrence that is the subject matter' of the suit a broad realistic interpretation in the interest of avoiding a multiplicity of suits." 3 Moore ¶ 13.13. Accordingly, a "transaction" which is the foundation of a plaintiff's claim is not limited to the facts therein set forth, but includes any logically related acts and conduct of the parties. Parmelee v. Chicago Eye Shield Co., 8 Cir., 1946, 157 F.2d 582, 168 A.L.R. 1130; United States for Use and Benefit of Pickard v. Southern Construction Company, 6 Cir., 1961, 293 F.2d 493.
It is clear that both counts of defendant's Louisiana action arise out of the same transaction which is the basis of plaintiff's complaint in the present action. Count I seeks a declaratory judgment that defendant's "TROPIPAC" label does not infringe the "Chiquita" trademark displayed on plaintiff's labels. The labels mentioned are the same labels which underlie the present action. Though Count I is a claim relating to trademark infringement and so involves an issue of law that is distinct from that before the court with respect to plaintiff's claim, it is clear from the law already...
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