Oppenheimer Bros., Inc. v. Joyce & Co.

This is an appeal from a decree which denied plaintiffs’ prayer for an injunction restraining breach of a negative covenant and transferred to the law side a controversy over various items of account. Defendants have filed a cross-appeal from some of the findings in the decree. All the parties are in the insurance brokerage or agency business, and the case involves an arrangement for the promotion and placement of insurance to be underwritten by Lloyd’s of London underwriters. The principal issue is whether an alleged usage of the trade exists which requires producing brokers of Lloyd…