Gordon

From a judgment in favor of defendant, after trial before the court without a jury, in an action seeking (a) damages and (b) an injunction restraining defendant from soliciting plaintiffs’ customers, plaintiffs appeal.

Facts: Plaintiffs are, and for about eight and one-half years have been, engaged in the house-to-house installment sales business. Their business is conducted by selling merchandise, generally to housewives in a low-income bracket, at their homes, with either a down payment of $1.00 or $2.00, or with no down payment at all. Weekly installments of $1.00 to $2.00 are thereafter collected by plaintiffs through their collector-salesmen.

The collector-salesman has a dual task. He calls at the house of the customer each week on a scheduled day and collects the small installment payment due. At the same time he makes what, in the trade, are called “add-on sales,” that is, sales of additional merchandise, the cost of which is added to the customer’s account. The customer thus comes to rely on the plaintiffs, through the medium of their collector-salesman, as her supplier of the type of goods which plaintiffs handle.

Plaintiffs carry a line of general merchandise, such as…