Cliff May v. Morganelli-Heumann & Associates

Cliff May sued defendants for copyright infringement and unfair competition, contending that they copied several of his drawings. The district court granted defendants summary judgment. May appeals. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 , and we reverse and remand for trial because defendants’ right to use May’s work depends on issues of contract interpretation not properly resolved on summary judgment.

I.

FACTUAL BACKGROUND

Fletcher Jones hired Cliff May, an architect, on January 17, 1969, to design a residence and horse training facilities, called the Westerly Stud project. Their contract required May to prepare two sets of drawings: the preliminary design drawings and, after Jones’s authorization, the final drawings and specifications. May’s fee for the preliminary drawings, payable in three installments, was five percent of the final cost of construction. The first payment was due upon completion of a draft of the preliminary drawings, the second upon completion of the preliminary drawings, and the last upon completion of construction of the project. The contract contemplated that the first two payments would total five percent of the cost of construction, estimated…