Source: https://openjurist.org/353/us/222
Timestamp: 2019-04-21 08:11:16+00:00

Document:
TRANSMIRRA PRODUCTS CORPORATION, and Robert Aronstein.
Edward S. Irons, Washington, D.C., for petitioner.
Mr. W. R. Hulbert, Boston, Mass., for respondents.
The question presented is whether 28 U.S.C. § 1400(b), 28 U.S.C.A. § 1400(b), is the sole and exclusive provision governing venue in patent infringement actions, or whether that section is supplemented by 28 U.S.C. § 1391(c), 28 U.S.C.A. § 1391(c).
Petitioner, Fourco Glass Company, a West Virginia corporation, was sued for patent infringement in the Southern District of New York. It moved to dismiss for lack of venue,1 because, although it had a regularly established place of business in the district of suit, there was no showing that it had committed any of the alleged acts of infringement there. The District Court held that there had been no showing of any acts of infringement in the district of suit and that venue in patent infringement actions is solely and exclusively governed by § 1400(b), as a special and specific venue statute applicable to that species of litigation. It accordingly granted the motion and dismissed the action. 133 F.Supp. 531. The Court of Appeals, without passing on the District Court's ruling that there had been no showing of acts of infringement in the district of suit, reversed, 233 F.2d 885, 886, holding that proper construction 'requires * * * the insertion in' § 1400(b) 'of the definition of corporate residence from' § 1391(c), and that the two sections, when thus 'read together,' mean 'that this defendant may be sued in New York, where it 'is doing business." We granted certiorari2 because of an asserted conflict with this Court's decision in Stonite Products Co. v. Melvin Lloyd Co., 315 U.S. 561, 62 S.Ct. 780, 86 L.Ed. 1026, and to resolve a conflict among the circuits3 upon the question of venue in patent infringement litigation.
We start our considerations with the Stonite case. The question there—not legally distinguishable from the question here was whether the venue statute applying specifically to patent infringement litigation (then § 48 of the Judicial Code, 28 U.S.C. (1940 ed.) § 109) was the sole provision governing venue in those cases, or whether that section was to be supplemented by what was then § 52 of the Judicial Code, 28 U.S.C. (1940 ed.) § 113, which authorized—just as its recodified counterpart, 28 U.S.C. § 1392(a), 28 U.S.C.A. § 1392(a), does now—an action, not of a local nature, against two or more defendants residing in different judicial districts within the same state, to be brought in either district. That supplementation, if permissible, would have fixed venue over Stonite Products Company (an inhabitant of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania) in the District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, where the suit was brought, because its codefendant was an inhabitant of that district.
'The change of arrangement, which placed portions of what was originally a single section in two separated sections cannot be regarded as altering the scope and purpose of the enactment. For it will not be inferred that Congress, in revising and consolidating the laws, intended to change their effect, unless such intention is clearly expressed. United States v. Ryder, 110 U.S. 729, 740, 4 S.Ct. 196 (201), 28 L.Ed. 308; United States v. Le Bris, 121 U.S. 278, 280, 7 S.Ct. 894 (895), 30 L.Ed. 946; Logan v. United States, 144 U.S. 263, 302, 12 S.Ct. 617 (629), 36 L.Ed. 429, 442; United States v. Mason, 218 U.S. 517, 525, 31 S.Ct. 28 (31), 54 L.Ed. 1133, 1136.' Anderson v. Pacific Coast S.S. Co., 225 U.S. 187, 198—199, 32 S.Ct. 626, 630, 56 L.Ed. 1047.
In the light of the fact that the Revisers' Notes do not express any substantive change, and of the fact that several of those having importantly to do with the revision say no change is to be presumed unless clearly expressed, and no substantive change being otherwise apparent, we hold that 28 U.S.C. § 1400(b), 28 U.S.C.A. § 1400(b) made no substantive change from 28 U.S.C. (1940 ed.) § 109 as it stood and was dealt with in the Stonite case.
The main thrust of respondents' argument is that § 1391(c) is clear and unambiguous and that its terms include all actions including patent infringement actions—against corporations, and, therefore, that the statute should be read with, and as supplementing, § 1400(b) in patent infringement actions. That argument is not persuasive, as it merely points up the question and does nothing to answer it. For it will be seen that § 1400(b) is equally clear and, also, that it deals specially and specifically with venue in patent infringement actions. Moreover, it will be remembered that old § 52 of the Judicial Code, 28 U.S.C. (1940 ed.) § 113, was likewise clear and generally embracive, yet the Stonite case held that it did not supplement the specific patent infringement venue section (then § 48 of the Judicial Code, 28 U.S.C. (1940 ed.) § 109). The question is not whether § 1391(c) is clear and general, but, rather, it is, pointedly, whether § 1391(c) supplements § 1400(b), or, in other words, whether the latter is complete, independent and alone controlling in its sphere as was held in Stonite, or is, in some measure, dependent for its force upon the former.
We think it is clear that § 1391(c) is a general corporation venue statute, whereas § 1400(b) is a special venue statute applicable, specifically, to all defendants in a particular type of actions, i.e., patent infringement actions. In these circumstances the law is settled that 'However inclusive may be the general language of a statute, it 'will not be held to apply to a matter specifically dealt with in another part of the same enactment. * * * Specific terms prevail over the general in the same or another statute which otherwise might be controlling.' Ginsberg & Sons v. Popkin, 285 U.S. 204, 208, 52 S.Ct. 322, 323, 76 L.Ed. 704.' Clifford F. MacEvoy Co. v. United States, 322 U.S. 102, 107, 64 S.Ct. 890, 894, 88 L.Ed. 1163.
We hold that 28 U.S.C. § 1400(b), 28 U.S.C.A. § 1400(b) is the sole and exclusive provision controlling venue in patent infringement actions, and that it is not to be supplemented by the provisions of 28 U.S.C. § 1391(c), 28 U.S.C.A. § 1391(c). The judgment of the Court of Appeals must therefore be reversed and the cause remanded for that court to pass upon the District Court's ruling that there had been no showing of acts of infringement in the district of suit.
Mr. Justice HARLAN, believing that the Revisers' Notes have been given undue weight, Ex parte Collett, 337 U.S. 55, 61—71, 69 S.Ct. 944, 947—952, 959, 93 L.Ed. 1207, and that they are in any event unclear, dissents for the reasons given by the Court of Appeals, 233 F.2d 885. See also Dalton v. Shakespeare Co., 5 Cir., 196 F.2d 469; Lindley, C.J., dissenting In C-O-Two Fire Equipment Co. v. Barnes, 2 Cir., 194 F.2d 410, 415; Denis v. Perfect Parts, Inc., D.C., 142 F.Supp. 259; Moore, Commentary on the U.S. Judicial Code, 184—185, 193—194.
Under Rule 12(b)(3) of Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, 28 U.S.C.A.
352 U.S. 820, 77 S.Ct. 68, 1 L.Ed.2d 45.
315 U.S. at pages 563, 566, 62 S.Ct. at page 781.
Professor James William Moore of Yale University, a special consultant on this revision, stated that: 'Venue provisions have not been altered by the revision.' Hearings before Subcommittee No. 1 of the House Judiciary Committee on H.R. 1600 and H.R. 2055, 80th Cong., 2d Sess., p. 1969.
Judge Albert B. Maris of the Third Circuit, Conference of the United States to collaborate with the congressional committees in carrying forward the work of this revision, stated that: '(C)are has been taken to make no changes in the existing laws which would not meet with substantially unanimous approval.' Id., p. 1959.

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