(1942) Tags: Warner Bros.

McCONNOR v. KAUFMAN et al.

The Man Who Came to Dinner movie 1942

This action accuses “The Man Who Came to Dinner”, a very successful comedy played on the stage in New York City and elsewhere in the United States, produced also as a movie starring Bette Davis and published as a book, of infringement of plaintiff’s copyright in an unpublished and unproduced play entitled “Sticks and Stones”, the copyright title of which was “The Murder Issue”.

Of the defendants named, George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart were the playwrights; Sam H. Harris, deceased, had presented the play on the stage; Random House, Inc., had published the play; and Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc., had produced the film.

Judgment: “The Man Who Came to Dinner” infringes neither the copyrighted version nor the play submitted by the plaintiff to Kaufman. Accordingly the complaint will be dismissed with awarded counsel fees and costs: $600 for the appellees George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart; $200 for the appellees George M. Cohan, Irving Berlin, Dennis F. O’Brien and Kathleen Nolan Harris, as executors of Sam H. Harris; $100 for the appellee Random House, Inc; and $100 for the appellee, Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.