50
FEDERAL REPORTEu.
operating jointly with the fit, it was nevertheless held essential to show that the fit was a cause in the sense of being the immediate cause of death, in order to exonerate the company. Scheffer v. Railroad Co., supra, only has application here by way of analogy. In that case a passenger on a railway car was injured by a collision of trains, and, becoming thereby disordered in mind and body, he, some eight months thereafter, committed suicide. It was held, in a suit by his personal representatives against the railway company, that his own act was the proximate cause of his death, and that,therefore, thore could be no recovery. Although it may be said that Orandal would not have committed suicide had he not been insane, and so that the insanity was a promoting cause of death, upon the reasoning and authority of the cases referred to, the conclusion seems unavoidable that the act of self-destruction must be regarded, within the meaning of the policy, as the true and proximate cause of his death. Quite against my first impressions when the case was submitted, I am constrained to bold, upon deliberate consideration, that the plaiutiff is entitled to recover. If I am wrong in my conclusions, it is a gratification to know that the case is one that may be taken to the supreme court for its judgment, and in which the error, if error has been committed, may be there corrected. Judgment for plaintiff on the verdict.
BANKS
&
BROS. 'D. WEST PUBLISHING 00.
and another.1
(Oircuit Oourt, D. MinnlJ8ota.
April,1886.)
1.
CoPYRIGHT-RIGHT OF STATE IN OPINIONS OF JUDGES.
Whether a state, by virtue of the common law, has, or by the copyright acts of congress can acquire, any property right in the opinions of the judges of its supreme court, discussed, but not decided.
9.
SAME-REPORTS OF JUDICIAL OPINIONS-WHAT PROTECTED.
It is in accordance with sound public policy, in a commonwealth where every person is presumed to know the law, to regard the authoritative expositions of the law by the regularly constituted judicial tribunals as public property, to be publIshed freely by anyone who may choose to publish them, and such publication may be of everything which is the work of the judges. The copyright of the volume does not interfere with such free publication, as it protects only the work of the reporter.
8.
SAME-PUBLICATION OF IOWA DECISIONS-STATUTES AND CONTRAOT CONSTRUED.
The Iowa statutes of 1873 and 1880, and the contract made with complainant under the authority of the act of 1880, construed, and held that the opinions of the judges of the supreme court of that state are free to all; that the copyright to be obtained for the benefit of the state was intended to protect only the completed volumes; and that no right of complainant is violated by the publication of the opinions by another pUblisher in advance of the official reports. by Robertson Howard, Esq., of the St. Paul bar.
1 Reported
BA:KKS V. WEST PUBI,ISHI:KG CO.
51
General Assembly of the state of Iowa, the executive council is authorized to contract fo!' the printing and pUblishing of the reports of the opinions of the supreme court of Iowa; and whereas, the said execl\tive council, in accordance with the provisions of section 4 of said chapter, did publish in six different newspapers, published in different localities in the said state, weekly for six weeks, commencing on the first week in April, A. D. 1880, a notice to the effect that sealed proposals would be received at the ollice of the secretary of state, for stereotyping, printing, publishing, and selling the said Reports for the term of eight years, from the first day of June of said year, at a certain rate per volume, to be stated in said proposals, the bids to be received on or before 12 o'clock, noon, of May 31, 1880; and whereas, Banks & Bros., before the said first day of June, 1880, and aHel" the publication of said notice, to-wit, on the thirty-first day of May, 1880, did, before noon of said day, in accordance with said notice and the law, deposit with the secretary of state their sealed proposal as follows: "To enter into a contract for stereotyping, printing, publishing, and selling the reports of the decisions of the supreme court of Iowa for the term of eight years from the first day of June. 1880, as required by and SUbject to the provisions of chapter 60 of the Eighteenth General Assembly of Iowa, the same being an act entitled 'An act to provide for the stereotyping, printing, publishing, and sale of the SupremEl Court Reports, and to repeal sections 155, 156, 157, and 160, c. 4, tit. 3, of Code, and to fix the salary of the suprElme court reporter,' for the sum of ninety-four cents per volume; and we attach hereto the receipt of the treasurer of the state of Iowa, showing that we have, in compliance with section 5 of said act, deposited with hini the sum of one thousand dollars, to be forfeited to said state of Iowa on failure to enter into said contract, as required by said act. "BANKS & BIWTHERS, "Per JOSEPH G. JENNINGS,
In Equity. This is a suit brought by the complainants to restrain tile defendant from publishing the opinions of the supreme court of Iowa, the complainants claiming that the exclusive right of such publication is vested in them. The Northwestern Reporter, in which are published these opinions, as well as those of the supreme courts of other northwestern states, was first issued by the defendant in 1879, and has been since a continuous weekly publication. It is this publication of opinions which the complainants' seek to enjoin. The exclusive right of complainants is claimed by virtue of a contract with the state of Iowa of date July 8,1880, full compliance with whose terms is alleged. The statute, chapter 60, Laws Iowa 1880, under which the contract was made, and such portions of the laws of 1873 as define the duties of clerk and reporter in respect to the opinions and Reports, are as follows: Whereas, by the provisions of chapter 60 of the Acts of the Eighteenth
"Attorney in Fact."
-Therefore, know all men by these presents, that, in consideration of the fore· going premises, said Banks & Bros. Ill'reby agree with the state of Iowa that they will stereotype, print, publish, and sell the reports of tllEl supreme court the state of Iowa, in accordance with the provisions of said chapter 60 01 the Acts of the Eighteenth General Assembly, said chapter being herein re· ferred to as a part hereof, for the term of eight years from and after the first
52
FEDERAL REPORTER.
day of June. IR80. Said Banks & Bros. further agree to deliver to the secretary of state, :l.t the capitol, at Des Moines, 250 copies of each volume of said Reports free of cost of publication or delivery, at the earliest practicable time, and within 60 days after the delivery of the manuscript for anyone copy of such Reports to them; that they will stereotype the same, and at all times keep said Reports on sale in the state of Iowa to residents of said state, for actual use, at the price of 94 cents per volume, in suitable quantity, in the city of Des Moines; that they will furnish the state any number of additional copies that may be required for its own use, at said price, and will procure new stereotype plates whenever the original plates shall become defaced or destroyed. The said Banks &; Bros. further agree that they will not take out in their own name, nor in the name of any other person than the secretary of state of the state of Iowa, a copyright for anyone of the volumes published under this contract, but that they will take out the copyright in the name of the secretary of state as aforesaid; and they hereby covenant that, in case they should take out a copyright for anyone of said volumes in the name of any other person than said secretary of state, they will forfeit and pay to the state of Iowa the sum of $2,000 for each breach of this contract. Said sum of $2,000 is hereby agreed on as liquidated damages for each breach of said covenant. It is further agreed by the said Banks & Bros. that if it is determined in any action on their bond, given for the faithful performance of this contract, that they have failed in any respect to comply with the pro'lisions of said chapter 60, or of this contract, the executive council may declare the contract forfeited; and that upon such forfeiture so declared they will, upon demand, transfer to the secretary of state of the state of Iowa, for the use of said state, the stereotype plates of each volume of said Reports published under this contract, or, in default, will pay to the treasurer of the state of Iowa $2,000 for each of such volumes, as liquidated damages for failure to make such transfer. It is agreed on the part of the state of Iowa that the reporter make a volume as prOVided for in section 1 of said chapter 60,-copies of such opinions, with syllabus, with statement of facts involved, and legal propositions made by counsel in the arguments. with authorities cited,-and within 20 days after the proof-sheets for a volume are furnished to said reporter at his office in Des Moines, Iowa, by said Banks & Bros., it is agreed that said reporter shall furnish to the said Banks & Bros. an index and table of cases to such volume. 'rhe said Banks & Bros. further agree to furnish to the reporter, as soon as they may be issued, two copies of the revised proof-sheets of the opinions, of each volume, for correction and aphead-notes, indexes, and table of proval hy the judges of the supreme court, and will cause such corrections to be made as indicated by the judges. It is further agreed and understood that each of said volumes of Reports shall contain not less than 750 nor more than 800 pages, exclusive of table of cases and index, and said Banks & Bros. further undertake and agree that the workmanship and quality of material in said volumes of H.eports published by them under this contract shall in every respect be equal to that of the first issue of volume 40 of Iowa Reports; and, further, that each of said volumes published nnder this contract shall be approved and accepted by a majority of the judges of the said supreme court of Iowa. It is further agreed that the said Banks & Bros., their successors and assigns, shall have the right to the exclusive pUblication and sale of each of said volumes of Reports so long as they shall in all respects comply with the requirements of the act hereinbefore mentioned in respect to the character, sale, and price of such volume, and the copyright of the Heports publiflhed under this contract shall rest in the secretary of state for the benefit of the people of the state of Iowa, in accordance with section 2 of said act. In witness whereof, the said Banks & Bros. and the executive council ot