4. Same—Injunction against Infringement—State Compilation of Statutes.
A court should not interfere by injunction to restrain the publication by a state of a new compilation of its laws determined by its legislature to be required by the public interests, and which has been completed, on the ground that the compiler has appropriated the labor of a former compiler in infringement of his copyright, unless the right to the relief is clearly manifest from the evidence.
Appeal from the Circuit Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Michigan.
George Gartner, for appellant.
George P. Wanty, for appellees.
Before HARLAN, Circuit Justice, TAFT, Circuit Judge, and CLARK, District Judge.
HARLAN, Circuit Justice. This action was brought in the circuit court of the United States for the Eastern district of Michigan by the appellant, Howell, against the appellees, Lewis M. Miller, Washington Gardner, George A. Steel, William A. French, the Robert Smith Printing Company (a corporation of Michigan), Robert Smith, Edgar Thorpe, and John H. Stephenson. The parties, plaintiff and defendants, are all citizens of Michigan. The plaintiff prepared and published some years ago three volumes known as “Howell’s Annotated Statutes of Michigan.” The first volume contained the general laws of the state, including the acts of the extra session of the legislature of 1882, with notes and digests of the decisions of the supreme court of Michigan, and an appendix containing the general tax law of 1882. It also contained the Declaration of Independence; the constitution of the United States, with an index; the act of 1787 for the government of the Northwest Territory, with notes and digests of decisions; the act of 1805 for the government of the Michigan territory, with marginal notes; the ordinance of 1836, relating to certain propositions made by congress to Michigan, with marginal notes; the assent of Michigan to the act of congress of June 15, 1836; the act of 1837, admitting Michigan into the Union; and the constitution of Michigan of 1850, with marginal notes, digest of decisions, and index. The second volume was in the same general form. The third was also in the same form, and contained the Public Acts of Michigan passed at the legislative sessions of 1883, 1885, 1887, and 1889. Each volume was copyrighted by the plaintiff, and thereby, it is asserted, he acquired under the laws of the United States “the sole liberty of printing, reprinting, publishing, * * * and vending the same.” Rev. St. U. S. § 4952. The bill proceeds upon the ground that another compilation of the statutes of Michigan, in two volumes, had been prepared by the defendant Miller, and was about to be published and distributed by or through the agency of the defendants. The first volume, when this suit was brought, had been printed by direction of the legislature, and was about to be bound and distributed. Such publication and distribution of the new compilation will, it is averred, be an in-
