Marston v. . Swett
New York Court of Appeals
Appeal from judgment of the General Term of the Supreme Court, in the third judicial department, affirming a judgment in favor of plaintiff entered upon a verdict.
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Appeal from judgment of the General Term of the Supreme Court, in the third judicial department, affirming a judgment in favor of plaintiff entered upon a verdict. This action was brought to recover the amount of certain royalties which the complaint alleged defendants had agreed to pay for an exclusive right to use a certain invention known as “Hawk’s auxiliary air-chamber for stoves, heaters and furnaces,” for which letters patent had been issued to Elizabeth Hawks, and which had been assigned by her to the plaintiff, the defendants, Swett and Quimby, and to one Huttall. The substance of…
1Opinion of the CourtFinch, J.
The existence of a valid patent, protecting the device manufactured by the defendants, was the essential and material element underlying the contract between the parties. Assuming, as we must, from the finding of the jury, that the contract was what the plaintiff claimed, it is still apparent that the existence and validity of the patent was the basis of the agreement, and its principal if not its sole inducement. The patent itself, with a guaranty of its validity, was transferred by Mrs. Hawks, the original patentee, to the four parties, Marston, Huttall, Perry and Swett, burdened with a…
2Cases cited2 opinions
- Marston v. . SwettNew York Court of Appeals · 1876
- Peck v. . CollinsNew York Court of Appeals · 1877
3Cited by38 opinions
- Zenith Laboratories, Inc., on Behalf of Itself and All Others Similarly Situated v. Carter-Wallace, IncCourt of Appeals for the Third Circuit · 1976
- Automatic Radio Mfg. Co. v. Hazeltine Research, Inc.Court of Appeals for the First Circuit · 1949
- Drackett Chemical Co. v. Chamberlain Co.Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit · 1933
- Strong v. Carver Cotton Gin Co.Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1907
- Victory Bottle Capping Mach. Co. v. O. & J. Mach. Co.Court of Appeals for the First Circuit · 1922
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