Case ID: ny_220/html/0578-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Joseph W. Jacobs, Respondent, v. American Play Company et al., Appellants.
    
      Jacobs v. American Play Co., 173 App. Div. 931, affirmed.
    (Argued January 9, 1917;
    decided January 23, 1917.)
    Appeal, by permission, from an order of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in the fjrst judicial department, entered April 7, 1916, which affirmed an order of Special Term denying a motion by defendants for judgment on the pleadings. The action is one in equity for an accounting and to impress a trust on the profits arising out of a foreign production of the play, “ Within the Law. ” The plaintiff, as the owner of a one-fourth interest in the producing rights of said play in the United States of America and the Dominion of Canada, bases his present action on the failure of his co-venturer, the defendant American Play Company, to exercise in favor of the joint venture an option to acquire the foreign producing rights in said play. He.alleges fraud on the part of all three defendants by claiming that these foreign rights were obtained in the name of the defendants Selwyn & Company, playbrokers.
    The following question was certified: “Does the complaint state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action ? ”
    
      Melville H. Cane and Albert A. Raphael for appellants.
    
      Charles H. Tuttle and William Klein for respondent.
   Order affirmed, with costs, -and question certified answered in the affirmative; no opinion.

Concur: Hisoooic, Oh. J., Collin, Ouddeback, Hogan, Cardozo and Pound, JJ. Absent: Chase, J.