Case Name: OLGA GATHMANN FOLEY, ADMINISTRATRIX OF THE ESTATE OF LOUIS GATHMANN, DECEASED, v. THE UNITED STATES
Court: Supreme Court of the United States
Jurisdiction: United States
Decision Date: 1923-01-29
Citations: 58 Ct. Cl. 702
Docket Number: 
Parties: OLGA GATHMANN FOLEY, ADMINISTRATRIX OF THE ESTATE OF LOUIS GATHMANN, DECEASED, v. THE UNITED STATES.
Judges: 
Reporter: United States Court of Claims Reports
Volume: 58
Pages: 702–703

Head Matter:
OLGA GATHMANN FOLEY, ADMINISTRATRIX OF THE ESTATE OF LOUIS GATHMANN, DECEASED, v. THE UNITED STATES.
[56 C. Cls. 303; 260 U.S. 667.]
Judgment was rendered in favor of the United States in the court below. On appeal the judgment was affirmed, and the Supreme Court decided:
G- wrote to the Navy Department', with respect to his invention for drying materials, that, in consideration of the department’s building a testing apparatus at its own expense, he gave it the option of using the method, if it found it to its advantage, by paying so much for each pound of material so dried. The department accepted the proposition, saying that it had ordered an experimental apparatus on G’s plan, which would be tested and, if it worked satisfactorily to the Bureau of Ordnance, would pay him as proposed. After the test, the bureau notified G that the test proved unsatisfactory and was abandoned.
II el A: (a) Not a contract that' the department would use the method, but an option, or at most a conditional obligation subject to be terminated by the department when the test proved unsatisfactory.
(5) By remaining silent and inactive for five years after receiving notice from the bureau that the relations between them were terminated, G acquiesced.
Patents 763387 and 763388, issued to Gathmann, for a method of drying materials, with the aid of a “ vaporous atmosphere ” were either anticipated, or not' infringed, by the “ closed circuit method” used by the Government in this case for drying smokeless powder.

Opinion:
Mr. Justice McKenna
delivered the opinion of the Supreme 29, 1923.