"Virginia Ehrman," The, and the "Agnese"

Work v. Leathers

Welch v. Cook

Welling, Rubber-Coated Harness-Trimming Company v.

Wright, County of, Emigrant Company v.

REPORTS OF THE DECISIONS

OF THE

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES,

OCTOBER TERM, 1877.

TROY v. EVANS.

1. The amount of the judgment below against a defendant in an action for money is prima facie the measure of the jurisdiction of this court in his behalf. 2. This prima facie case continues until the contrary is shown; and, if jurisdiction is invoked because of the collateral effect a judgment may have in another action, it must appear that the judgment conclusively settles the rights of the parties in a matter actually in dispute, the sum or value of which exceeds $5,000, exclusive of interest and costs.

MOTION to dismiss a writ of error to the Circuit Court of the United States for the Middle District of Alabama.

This is an action commenced Oct. 31, 1872, by Evans, Gardner, & Co., against the Mayor and Councilmen of Troy, a municipal corporation in Alabama.

The declaration alleges that the defendant, on the 19th of February, 1869, pursuant to lawful authority, issued certain town bonds, each for $100, payable to bearer, with interest at eight per cent per annum from said date, in ten annual instalments, after the completion of the Mobile and Girard Railroad to said town, together with the accrued interest; that sixty-three of said bonds are the property of the plaintiffs; that said road was completed to the town of Troy June 9, 1870; and that three annual instalments of ten per cent each, amount

ing to $30 of the principal, are due and unpaid on each of said bonds, besides interest. The plaintiffs therefore claim $1,890, the amount of the instalments due on said bonds, with interest on said bonds, at eight per cent per annum, from Feb. 19, 1869.

The defendant's plea sets forth that at the commencement of the suit the plaintiffs held the bonds as security for an existing liability or indebtedness of one Jones to them, which was much smaller in amount than the amount of said bonds, and which was neither paid nor extinguished by said bonds, nor by their delivery to the plaintiffs by said Jones; that the plaintiffs obtained said bonds from Jones, before the commencement of the suit, as security for his liability or indebtedness to them, and held the same as such security at the commencement of the suit, and not otherwise; and that, when they so obtained said bonds, they had notice that Jones was a citizen of the State of Alabama, as in fact he then was, and ever since has been.

There was a judgment for the plaintiffs, May 27, 1875, for $3,926.96. The defendant below then sued out this writ of error, which the defendants in error now move to dismiss, on the ground that the amount in controversy is not sufficient to give this court jurisdiction.

Mr. H. A. Herbert for the defendants in error, in support of the motion.

Mr. Samuel F. Rice and Mr. Thomas G. Jones, contra.

MR. CHIEF JUSTICE WAITE delivered the opinion of the

court.

The writ of error in this case was sued out by the defendants below, upon a judgment rendered May 27, 1875, for $3,926.96. If there were nothing more, it would be clear that we have no jurisdiction. The bonds sued upon, however, were payable in instalments, and amounted in the aggregate to more than $5,000, while the instalments due when the judgment was rendered were less. The plea upon which the case was tried put in issue only the ownership of the bonds and the right of the plaintiffs to bring the suit, the claim being that one Jones, a citizen of Alabama, was the real owner, and that the plaintiffs

ap

held them only as security for a debt which he owed, less in amount than the bonds. The amount of the debt nowhere pears in the pleadings, though it is admitted that the bonds were held as security only.

Conceding all that is claimed in the argument opposing this motion, to wit, that the judgment in this action will be conclusive in another by the present plaintiffs upon the same bonds as to the liability of the defendants upon the bonds to the extent of the debt of Jones, for which they are held, still our jurisdiction cannot be maintained, unless it also appears that this debt exceeds $5,000. Prima facie, the judgment against a defendant in an action for money is the measure of our jurisdiction in his behalf. This prima facie case continues until the contrary is shown; and, if jurisdiction is invoked because of the collateral effect a judgment may have in another action, it must appear that the judgment conclusively settles the rights of the parties in a matter actually in dispute, the sum or value of which exceeds the required amount. No issue was raised here as to how much was actually due the plaintiffs from Jones, and the testimony is by no means clear upon that subject. Certainly there is nothing in the record which concludes the parties upon that question; and, as it rests upon the plaintiff in error to establish our jurisdiction affirmatively before we can proceed, the writ is

Dismissed.

GLUE COMPANY v. UPTON.

1 The mere change in form of a soluble article of commerce, by reducing it to small particles so that its solution is accelerated and it is rendered more ready for immediate use, convenient for handling, and, by its improved appearance, more merchantable, does not make it a new article, within the sense of the patent law.

2. To render an article new within that law, it must be more or less efficacious, or possess new properties by a combination with other ingredients.

3. Reissued letters-patent No. 4072, granted July 12, 1870, to Thomas P. Milligan and Thomas Higgins, assignees of Emerson Goddard, for an improvement in the manufacture of glue, the alleged improvement consisting "of glue comminuted to small particles of practically uniform size, as distinguished from the glue in angular flakes hitherto known," - are void for want of novelty.

APPEAL from the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of Massachusetts.

This is a suit in equity by the Milligan and Higgins Glue Company, against George Upton, for the alleged infringement of reissued letters-patent No. 4072, for an improvement in the manufacture of glue, granted July 12, 1870, to Thomas P. Milligan and Thomas Higgins, assignees of Emerson Goddard, upon the surrender and cancellation of original letters-patent No. 44,528, issued to the latter Oct. 4, 1864. The complainant is the assignee of Milligan and Higgins. The bill prays for an injunction, and for an account of the defendant's gains and profits arising from the manufacture and sale of the patented article. Upon hearing, the court below dismissed the bill, whereupon the complainant appealed here. The facts relating to the alleged invention are stated in the opinion of the court.

The case was argued by Mr. Edmund Wetmore for the appellant.

The court declined to hear Mr. George L. Roberts and Mr. Chauncey Smith for the appellee.

MR. JUSTICE FIELD delivered the opinion of the court. In the court below, the defendant questioned the validity of the surrender of the original patent and of the reissue; but, from the view we take of the alleged invention or discovery, it is unnecessary to consider this point. We shall treat the reissue as for the same invention or discovery, differing in no substantial particular from that originally patented. In the specification accompanying the reissue, the patentee states that he has invented a new and useful article, which he denominates "instantaneous or comminuted glue;" and then proceeds to describe the glue of commerce previously found in the market, and to point out the inconveniences attending its use, and the manner in which they are obviated by his invention. He states that the ordinary glue of commerce was then sold in the form of hard, angular flakes, and that it required a good deal of time to prepare it for use,-first by soaking it in cold water, and afterwards by heating it in a hot-water bath until the flakes were dissolved. The time thus occupied, he says,