South-Western Publishing Company, a Corporation v. Harry Simons, Harry Simons v. South-Western Publishing Co., a Corporation

FACTS

Harry Simons, an author, appeals from a judgment dismissing his copyright infringement action, and holding him in breach of a contract with his publisher, South-Western Publishing Co. We affirm.

In 1941, Simons, then a young U.C.L.A. professor, agreed with South-Western Publishing to prepare an accounting textbook. He wrote the book in collaboration with two others and published it late that year. In 1949, after Simons’ co-authors had assigned to him their rights in the book, Si-mons agreed with South-Western to revise the 1941 textbook and divide it into two books: Advanced Accounting and Intermediate Accounting. Both texts were published in 1949. Periodically thereafter, Simons and South-Western entered into contracts to revise the texts. The contracts in dispute here were made in 1966 and 1970. South-Western contends that paragraph A(7) of the two contracts requires Simons to revise the fourth and fifth editions of the two books into the fifth and sixth editions; and that if Simons fails to revise, SouthWestern is free to hire other authors to do the job, and pay Simons any royalties it sees fit.

Simons contends that he owns the renewal copyrights to the 1949 basic…