Maurel v. Smith

Maurel v. Smith

Opinion

 [*198]  LEARNED HAND, District Judge. I do not propose to decide whether in the interview of December 2, 1912, Harry B. Smith and the plaintiff agreed that his work should be upon the terms of their previous contracts. There had been a number of these, all drafted in detail, and the bill is undoubtedly drawn upon the theory that that interview constituted a contract between the parties; but it is not necessary that the plaintiff should recover the express division of royalties there alleged, if enough facts are shown independently to give her the relief which she now asks. However, I do find that they agreed at that time that Harry B. Smith was to take the scenario and work upon it, if he approved it, that they agreed to a joint authorship in the piece, and that they accepted whatever the law implied as to the rights and obligations which arise from such an undertaking. I further find that Robert B. Smith had knowledge of the plaintiff's scenario and contributed his work upon the understanding that all three were contributing to a single joint operatic performance and assented to the work on those terms. The effect of the Smiths' misunderstanding of the plaintiff's [**2]  rights, arising from Werba & Luescher, I shall consider later.

 [*199]  The case may therefore be considered upon the basis of what rights the law will imply from an agreement of the kind mentioned. I have been able to find strangely little law regarding the rights of joint authors of books or dramatic compositions. The only case in the books in which the matter seems to have been discussed is Levy v. Rutly, L.R. 6 C.P. 523. That was a case in which Levy had employed Wilks to write a play for him, which Wilks did, and the plaintiff, finding some of the incidents were objected to by members of the playing company, made various alterations and additions; one scene being entirely new. The drama thus altered the plaintiff produced, and took from Wilks a receipt for a certain sum down "for my share, title, and interest as co-author with him in the drama." Wilks died, the defendant pirated the drama, and Levy sued. It was held that he could not recover, as his work did not constitute him a joint author, and the judges discussed the question of joint authorship, and each concluded that it would arise only when several parties contributed their labor to the production by common and [**3]  preconcerted design. Keating, J., at page 529, used the following language, which has often been quoted:

] "If two persons undertake jointly to write a play, agreeing on the general outline and design and sharing the labor of working it out, each would be contributing to the whole production, and they might be said to be joint authors of it; but to constitute joint authorship there must be a common design."

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