Loew's Inc. v. Superior Court

The petitioners seek to prohibit the respondent superior court from entertaining jurisdiction'of an action brought against the petitioners and others as defendants to recover damages for alleged misappropriation of a literary and dramatic work claimed to be the exclusive property of one Al Rosen. In the complaint in the pending action, the plaintiff, Al Rosen, alleged that he is the owner by assignment of a common law copyright in an unpublished dramatic composition and motion picture scenario entitled “The Mad Dog of Europe”; that in 1933 the work was submitted by him to the defendants, petitioners herein, and that it was rejected by them; that in 1939, without his knowledge or consent, the defendants appropriated the dramatic composition and in 1940 presented the same in a motion picture entitled “The Mortal Storm.” He also alleged the immediate giving of notice to the defendants of the alleged misappropriation. He sought damages in the sum of $575,000.

Loew’s Incorporated and Louis B. Mayer, two of the defendants in said action, and who are the petitioners herein, answered the complaint denying any misappropriation and alleging that the scenario, “The Mortal Storm,” was based…