Oregon Steam Navigation Co. v. Winsor

Citations

• 87 U.S. 64
• 22 L. Ed. 315
• 20 Wall. 64
• 1873 U.S. LEXIS 1488

Syllabus

<p>Questions about contracts in restraint of trade must be judged according to the circumstances on which they arise, and in subservience to the general rule that there must bo no injury to the public by its being deprived of the restricted party’s industry, and that the party himself must not , be precluded from pursuing his occupation and thus prevented from • supporting himself and his'family. Accordingly, where A., engaged in navigating waters of California alone, sold in 1864 a steamer to B., en-” gaged in navigating a particular river (the Columbia River), of Oregon and Washington Territories (regions to the north of California), subject to astipulation that he, B., would not employ it or suffer it to be employed for ten years from the date of the sale, in any waters of California, and B., three years afterwards, i. e., in 1867, sold the same steamer to C., engaged in navigating Puget’s Sound (water in the extreme northwest corner of Washington Territory and remote fr.Qtn all the other waters described), subject to a stipulation that she should not be run or employed upon apy of the routes of travel, or the rivers, bays, or waters of’the State of California, or the Columbia River and its tributaries, for the period of ten years from May 1st, 1067, held that the'contract was not void as in restraint of trade.</p> <p>Held, further — the contract in the second'case having been for ten years • ■ from the date of it, and therefore for three years after the first contract had expired — that it was so divisible in regard to the California portion that it could stand for the seven years for which B. was bound to protect it, though it was void as to the remaining three, and accordingly that B. could sue for a breach of it occurring within the first seven years of it; that is to say, occurring within the time that ho was to protect A.</p>