United States v. Esnault-Pelterie, 303 U.S. 26 (1938)

United States v. Esnault-Pelterie

No. 231

Argued January 7, 1938
Decided January 31, 1938
303 U.S. 26

CERTIORARI TO THE COURT OF CLAIMS

Syllabus

1. Review by this Court of a judgment of the Court of Claims against the United States in a suit for infringement of a patent, brought under the Act of June 25, 1910, as amended, is limited to questions of law. P. 28.

2. In a patent case in the Court of Claims under the Act of 1910, the questions of validity and infringement are questions of fact. P. 29.

3. The duty of the Court of Claims to find the ultimate facts, requires that it resolve conflicting inferences and draw the necessary factual conclusions from the evidence. Id.

4. The Court of Claims made elaborate circumstantial findings preceding its two ultimate findings that the patent sued on was valid and infringed by the United States. Its opinion disclosed that there was contradictory testimony by experts for the claimant and for the United States, but the evidence was not, and could not properly be, incorporated in the record before this Court. Held that, while this Court could inquire whether the ultimate findings were necessarily overborne by the subordinate ones, thus showing that the judgment against the United States was not sustainable in point of law, it could not take up the patents set forth in the findings and, in the absence of the explanatory and construing testimony of the expert witnesses, attempt to pass upon the various questions involved, and upon such a necessarily limited consideration overrule the conclusions of fact reached by the Court of Claims upon the entire record. P. 30.

84 Ct.Cls. 625 affirmed.

Certiorari, 302 U.S. 668, to review a judgment against the United States on a claim of patent infringement. See s.c. 299 U.S. 201.