Author Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1903 edition. Excerpt:... being, retaining the right to deal in explosives other than gunpowder, in torpedoes or submarine boats, and in metal castings or forgings. After some years he entered into business with another company dealing with guns and ammunition, and plaintiffs sought an injunction to restrain him from so doing. The court of appeals held that a general restraint of trade was void, but that the sale of a business accompanied by an agreement by the seller to rctire from the business is not a general restraint of trade, provided it is reasonable between the parties, and not injurious to the on the idea that public policy requires that when a man has by his skill or by any other means obtained something which he wants to sell he should be at liberty to public. This restraint, it was held, was reasonable between the parties because Nordenfelt not only received a very large sum of money, but retained considerable scope for the exercise of his inventive and manufacturing skill, while the wide area over which the business extended necessitated a restraint coextensive with that area for the protection of the plaintiffs. Nor could the agreement be said to be injurious to the public interest, since it transferred to an English company the making of guns and ammunition for foreign lands. On appeal the house of lords went further and demolished the old doctrine of general restraint, Lord Herschcll saying: " Whether the cases in which a general covenant can now be supported are to be regarded as exceptions from the rule which I think was long recognized as established, or whether the rule itself is to be treated as inapplicable to the altered conditions which now prevail, is probably a matter of words rather than of substance. The latter is perhaps the...