Page 314 - The_story_of_the_C._W._S._The_jubilee_history_of_the_cooperative_wholesale_society,_limited._1863-1913_(IA_storyofcwsjubill00redf) (1)_Neat

The Story of the C.W.S.

upon co-operative societies from " new members. " Junior employees
of the firm were sent with grocery orders, which, in apparent
innocence, included the Lever soaps, to societies, some of which, at
least, already had posted and advertised the fact of selling C.W.S.
soaps only. The salesmen supplied the nearest C.W.S. articles, but
in some cases, presumably, without thinking it necessary to explain
matters individually to the youth and to get his expressed consent.
Upon this slender basis, on August 5th, 1910, without warning or
notice, Messrs. Lever caused writs to be served uj^on twenty-two
societies, including the Masbro' Equitable Pioneers' Society
Limited, of Masbro', near Sheffield; and on the same day the legally
separate company of Benjamin Brooke and Co. Limited issued writs
against sixteen of the same societies. The latter company, however,
was also a business of Messrs. Levers, the original American company
having been bought for half a million sterUng by the English firm.
The claim against the defendants in each of the thirty-eight actions
was for an injunction, the nature of which best may be set forth in
legal language. It was to restrain the defendants from passing
off or attempting to pass off any soap not manufactured by the
plaintiffs as and for the soap of the plaintiffs, and from selling or
offering for sale any soap (not of the plaintiffs' manufacture) under a
description calculated to represent that such soap was the soap of the
plaintiffs ; and the plaintiffs also claimed damages, or, alternatively,
an account of profits and costs. Immediately after the receipt of
the writs the C.W.S. Committee, on August 10th, issued a circular
informing aU retail societies of the necessity that salesmen should not
supply C.W.S. soaps in place of others specifically ordered without
the pmrchasers' individual knowledge and approval—although at
Masbro', and probably in every other case, such instructions
previously had been given. Also, to cover the difficulty of written
orders brought in by children or otherwise, sHps were printed for
affixing to the orders. The C.W.S. Committee also endeavoured to
satisfy the plaintiffs in other ways; but the conditions demanded
by the latter were impossible, and there was nothing for it but to let
the issue go into court. The C.W.S. undertook the defence of all
the thirty-eight actions; but it was not until December that they
received particulars of the purchases, and by then it was, of course,
impossible either to verify satisfactorily or dispute the transactions.
The Masbro' case, as the first on the Ust, came before Mr.
Justice Joyce in the Chancery Court as late as October 18th, 1911.
In form there were two actions, that of Lever and Company and that
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