225 F. 769 | E.D. Pa. | 1915
It is at least not clear that the status of this case has changed since it was before the court on the prior motion to dismiss the bill. There is, however, practical wisdom in the suggestion made by counsel for defendant that the question of the right, in the assertion of which the defendant is rightfully insistent, should be disposed of at this time in order to save the possible second trial of the case. This is the only justification or excuse even for a discussion which partakes of something of the character of a reargument of the question raised.
At the expense of a somewhat lengthy statement of the principles involved, we will begin at the beginning.
In the absence of any statutes or rules of court affecting the question, a reason or ground for a court of equity refusing, or indeed finding that it lacked, the power to entertain jurisdiction of a bill, was always recognized to exist in the fact (where it was the fact) that an adequate remedy at law existed. In chancery bills there was in consequence always incorporated the averment that the plaintiff had no remedy at law. It might further appear from the bill itself that such a lemedy existed. Bence followed the practice of demurrers to bills ou 1his ground, as the existence of such a remedy was an insurmountable obstacle to the maintenance of the bill, and a formal answer was uncalled for. In some jurisdictions rules of practice-in equity were adopted which dispensed with the'requirement of a formal averment of the absence of a remedy at law, hut the existence of such a remedy was still recognized a.s a defense to the bill, and, if the fact was preseut ou the face of the bill, it was still the practice to meet it with a demurrer. When demurrers were abolished by the equity rules, the same result was reached through the medium of motions to dismiss for want of jurisdiction. A further change was then wrought in some juris
A partial history of tire evolution of the practice above outlined as traced through our own equity rules is this:
This point has already been decided; but, inasmuch as the present hearing is in the nature of a reargument of the whole question, we state our adherence to the opinion before expressed that an objection to tire maintenance of a bill on this ground must be asserted under Rule 22 or 23, and not under Rule 29.
The application of the principle of reference to the law side of the court is also accompanied with another principle. A case may be of a mixed character respecting the remedies called for, and there may be a commingling of the remedies to which the plaintiff is entitled, some of which may be purely equitable and which can be afforded
The principle then applicable is this:
11 only, remains to test the soundness of the foregoing principles hy a reference to the adjudicated cases. The case of Root v. Railway, 105 U. S. 189, 26 L. Ed. 975, having recognized that the courts were not in accord upon a statement of the principles involved, discusses them with lucidity and fullness for the purpose of silencing all controversy over them in the courts of the United States. This justifies us in limiting our references to this one case and to' a few others to show how the principles there enunciated have been applied.
()n its face Root v. Railway was the case of a bill filed by the owner oí a patent after his proprietary rights had ended. The prayer was lor a decree directing the defendant to account for and pay to plaintiff all profits received by him. The hill was demurred to on the ground that the plaintiff was not entitled to the relief prayed for because there was a full, complete, and adequate remedy at law. The demurrer was sustained in the court below and bill dismissed, and this
Nor is the present case ruled by any of the cited cases to which we have been referred.
Mershon v. Furnace Co. (C. C.) 24 Fed. 741, was a case in which the bill was served three days before the expiration of the patent. No injunction, provisional or final, could therefore have issued. There was an entire absence of the averment of any special grounds for equitable relief.
In American Co. v. Railway (C. C.) 41 Fed. 522, no preliminary injunction was asked for, and the patent expired before the return day of the subpoena. There was also here a total dearth of any special grounds for equitable interference.
The above cases will suffice to blaze for us the path upon which to travel. It is to be observed, however, that Root v. Railway was •decided before the adoption of the Equity Rules promulgated November 4, 1912, and therefore before we had Rules 22 and 23. The administrative policy enjoined upon us by these rules is not to permit plaintiffs to be hampered by procedure objections on the ground that complaint had been made to'the wrong court, but, while preserving to defendants all their rights in the disposition of cases, nevertheless to dispose of them by having them determined by that court to whose decision they are properly subject.
The conclusion reached is this:
Tiie motion to transfer is therefore dismissed, with leave to defendant to renew it at any time.