23 F. 225 | N.D. Ill. | 1885
The complainant company was organized under the laws of Pennsylvania, in 1875, for the purpose of mining anthracite coal in that stato, and selling the same there and elsewhere. It owns valuable coni mines in Pennsylvania, and does a large and lucrative business. Por a number of years it has had an extensive and profitable business in the west and north-west; and for convenience in the management of that business it has maintained an agency at Chicago, where it owns real estate, including a dock worth $200,000, and has on hand coal worth $400,000. The defendants in this suit, wishing to create a corporation in Illinois bearing the same name as the complainant, to carry on the same business, filed their articles of association with the secretary of state on the twenty-sixth of December, 1884, under the general laws of Illinois authorizing the creation of corporations. The secretary of state thereupon issued to the defendants a license as commissioners to open books for subscription to the capital stock of the now corporation, to be known as-the Lehigh Valley Goal Company. This suit was brought to prevent the defendants, by injunction, from receiving stock subscriptions, or taking any other steps necessary to be taken under the statute, in the creation of the new corporation.
The object of the defendants in causing an Illinois corporation to be created, bearing the same name as the complainant company, is obvious. They hope, by this means, to secure the benefit of part, at least, of the patronage which the complainant has acquired. Unwilling to engage in open, manly competition with the complainant and others carrying on the same business, the defendants resort to a trick or scheme whereby they hope to deceive the public, and obtain an unfair advantage of the complainant. Such conduct might be fairly characterized more harshly; and it is with extreme reluctance that I deny the complainant the relief prayed for.
The complainant is a foreign corporation, and it is only by corntiy
I do not say what may be done if the 'defendants succeed in creating their corporation bearing the complainant’s name, and a suit shall be brought by the complainant to prevent individuals claiming to be officers or managers of such corporation from interfering with the complainant’s business, as already stated.
The temporary injunction heretofore granted is dissolved, and the bill is dismissed.