Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 10.djvu/485

 GOTTFBIED V. MILLEK. ���473 ���assignment of Jannary 25, 1871, Holbeck, Smith, and Comegys, on the &rst day of June, 1871, made a further assignment to the company of their interests in the patents mentioned in the first assignment. This second assignment contained the provision — �•' That said corporation shall net assign any, or all, or any part of the Interesta hweby assigned in said patents, to any other person or persons except the grantors herein named, in proportion to their several and respective interests in the same, as held by them before any assignment to said corporation ; and provided, also, that this assignment shall continue in f ull force until the disso- lution of said company, in which event, or in the event of the liquidation of the affairs of said company, the several interests of each grantor in said pat- ents shall. subject to the lawful righta of the creditors of said corporation, be reassigiied to each grantor." �Now, as I have ah-eady stated, on the twenty-ufth day of Novem- bur, 1872, which is the next date in chronological order, John H. Stromberg made a sale to the defendant in the present suit of a pitching machine covered by the complainant's patent. On the twenty-fifth day of March, 1875, Gottfried, by written instrument, undertook to revoke and rescind the assignment which he had made to Holbeck on the nineteenth day of December, 1870, for the reason, as recited in the instrument of revocation, that Holbeck had neglected to pay the royalty upon the machines which he had manufactured. On the twenty-seventh day of October, 1875, an agreement was entered into by and between Holbeck and Stromberg whereby Holbeck, in consideration of the sum of $1,000 paid to him, undertook to sell and assign to Stromberg one undivided half of his right and title in and to the patent in question, and it was agreed that they should make articles of copartnership, and that Stromberg should furnish the capital to carry on the business of manufacturing pitching machines as described in the patent. On the ninth day of December, 1875, the directors of the Barrel-Pitching Machine Company resolved that all the right, title, and interest of the company in and to this patent, acquired by the assignment from Smith, Comegys, and Holbeck, should be assigned and conveyed back to those parties for the sum of $500, and it was further resolved that Charles F. Smith, who was the pres- ident of the Barrel-Pitching Machine Company, be directed to execute and deliver to Smith, Comegys, and Holbeck an assignment on behalf of the Pitching Machine Company. On the eleventh day of December, 1875, in pursuance of the resolution just mentioned, an instrument was executed which purported to be an assignment from the Barrel- Pitching Machine Company to Smith, Comegys, and Holbeck of all the ��� �