118 Misc. 789 | N.Y. Sup. Ct. | 1922
The plaintiff is a public accountant and auditor authorized under section 80 of the General Business Law to be styled and known as a certified public accountant and he seeks to enjoin the defendant from publishing any advertisement containing the words certified public accountant or the letters C. P. A., applied to any person not authorized to assume such title or use the abbreviation C. P. A. The statute makes a violation of section 80 of the General Business Law a misdemeanor, and section 421 of the Penal Law relating to untrue and misleading advertisements
The continued publication, after notice, of an unlawful advertisement is undoubtedly an improper act, and for the purpose of this motion I shall assume, without, however, attempting to decide, that it makes the publisher an accessory to a misdemeanor. A court of equity has power in a proper case to enjoin an act in spite of the fact that a criminal proceeding against the act will also lie, but this is the first application which has come to my notice where a court of equity is asked to grant an injunction against an act which is wrongful only because a statute makes that act a misdemeanor. The plaintiff would be entitled to an injunction against any wrongful act for which the law gives no sufficient redress and which constitutes an injury to his business, but in the present case there is no evidence that the unlawful advertisement does injure the plaintiff’s business. The legislature, not for the purpose of creating a monopoly or new property rights, but for the protection
Motion denied, with ten dollars costs.
Ordered accordingly.