United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

John Simmons Co. v. Grier Brothers Co., 258 U.S. 82 (1922)

John Simmons Company v. Grier Brothers Company

No. 57

Argued November 8, 1921

Decided February 27, 1922

258 U.S. 82

Syllabus

1. A bill of review is called for only after a final decree adjudicating upon the entire merits and leaving nothing further to be done except the execution of it. P. 258 U. S. 88.

2. An interlocutory decree may be modified or rescinded by the court at any time before final decree. P. 258 U. S. 88.

3. Whether a decree is final or interlocutory depends upon its essential purport and effect, and not upon its characterization in pleadings. P. 258 U. S. 89.

4. A decree in a suit for patent infringement and unfair competition, dismissing the bill as to the former ground and granting a permanent injunction as to the latter, but leaving the case pending for an accounting before a master, is interlocutory as an entirety, permitting the plaintiff, if diligent, to seek a rehearing of the dismissal. P. 258 U. S. 89. Smith v. Vulcan Iron Works, 165 U. S. 518, and Hill v. Chicago & Evanston R. Co., 140 U. S. 52, distinguished.

5. A proceeding to reopen by rehearing or bill of review a decree entered on a mandate of an appellate court should first be referred to that tribunal. P. 258 U. S. 91.

6. The fact that a party, to carry on his suit, moved execution of a mandate directing & decree partly adverse to himself, after his right of appeal was exhausted, did not make the resulting decree a decree by consent. P. 258 U. S. 91

Page 258 U. S. 83

7. A decision of this Court upholding a patent claim is ample ground for rehearing in a pending suit between other parties in which the same claim has been adjudged void. P. 258 U. S. 91.

8. Omission to apply to this Court for certiorari to an interlocutory decree held not laches. P. 258 U. S. 91.

9. Abercrombie & Fitch Co. v. Baldwin, 245 U. S. 198, upholding Claim 4 of Baldwin lamp patent, followed. P. 258 U. S. 91.

265 F.4d 1 reversed.

Certiorari to review a decree of the circuit court of appeals reversing a decree entered by the district court after a rehearing, in a suit for patent infringement and unfair competition and directing reinstatement of another previously entered under its mandate.