Court Opinion

ID: 8124983
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-09-09 15:05:03.638231+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T16:39:11.145127
License: Public Domain

Hoffman, J.,
(concurring.) I do not know whether I have a right to partake in this decision, or whether I form a part of the court. The circuit judge issued an order to show cause why an injunction *360should not be granted. That order was returnable on a day fixed. It came up before me. Counsel were not ready. It was postponed by consent to a further day. On that day counsel again announced that they were not ready. Thereupon the injunction issued, no cause being shown against it, with leave to move to dissolve at any time. The order was on the condition that the complainants give security. They attempted to give security. I concur in all, and more than all, that my associates have said as to the insufficiency of the sureties offered. But the question is: Did the failure to offer that security forfeit the right to an injunction, and forfeit the rights of complainant, which he must be presumed to have, under the allegations of the bill? I think it did not. When he offered to remedy his previous neglect by depositing a certified check or money, the court obtained all it originally asked for, and the injunction should have gone, and been continued, subject always to the right of the other party to move to dissolve it. On this motion to review the action of the court it appears to me that the question whether the injunction ought to be dissolved or not, upon a proper application and hearing, has no relevancy. I do not pretend to have considered this matter as thoroughly as my associates have done. The bill in this case, it seems to me, is like a bill to restrain a person from destroying heir-looms or publishing family letters, where, if the thing is done, the injury is irremediable. It is easy to see that an accounting for profits would not afford any indemnity. It is the right of an owner of a piece of literary property to be protected. His pride as an author must be considered. He has the right to choose his own licensee. ■ His play might be played for months, not at a profit, but a loss. In the mean-time, not only will the market be spoiled for a subsequent production oy the owner of the opera in this town, but the reputation of the opera injured. It appears to me it is a case for an injunction. But that is not the point on which I base my concurrence in the ruling of the court. I think that, on a review of the order dissolving the injunction, the question is, not whether the injunction should originally have gone, or should now be continued, but whether, under the circumstances, it ought to have been dissolved.
There is no absolute forfeiture of the right to an injunction because complainants have failed, under the circumstances, to comply with the order of the court requiring them to give security. If the opposite side are advised that the injunction ought to be dissolved, let them move to dissolve on notice to complainants.