Lamar John Ryan Cecil
Judge Cecil no longer hears cases. This profile is preserved as a historical record of how they ruled.
How Judge Cecil decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
He extended the reasoning against segregation in public education to public recreation, including the intangible harms of state-imposed separation.
“If the reasoning in the School Segregation Cases concerning psychological factors is sound as it relates to public education, then it must necessarily apply to the field of public recreation.”
He favored construing an oil-and-gas lease to avoid forfeiture when the lessee timely deposited the full rental despite an allocation mistake.
“leases will be construed, where possible, in such a manner as to avoid the termination of the rights of the Lessee”
Procedural preferences
He held patent owners to representations made during prosecution when the patent office relied on those representations to issue the claims.
“A patent owner is bound by the representations made by the applicant to the Patent Office during the prosecution of the patent”
He required every element of a combination patent to appear in the accused device and treated omission of one element as defeating infringement.
“In order to infringe a claim of a combination patent, the accused device must incorporate all the elements of the claimed combination, and omission of a single element avoids infringement.”
Cautions
He rejected projected-profit damages for a new business when the claimed loss was too speculative.
“plaintiff’s business is new and unestablished and the prospective profits of such a business are too speculative to form the basis of an award of damages.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“I think that the plaintiffs are entitled to the relief sought in this case”
“I am further convinced that a permanent injunction should be issued forever”
“a judgment should be entered declaring the lease to be in full force and effect and quieting the plaintiff’s title to the same”
“Plaintiff has no cause of action against defendant for alleged breach of confidence”
“Plaintiff has no cause of action against defendant for alleged unfair competition”
“Plaintiff has no cause of action against defendant for alleged violation of the anti-trust laws”
“Plaintiff’s suit for alleged infringement of Patent No. Re. 23,416 must be dismissed for invalidity of the patent as well as non-infringement by defendant.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
No case-level docket records are available for this mid-twentieth-century tenure, so the profile makes no claim about caseload mix or case duration.
A historical record
Judge Cecil no longer hears cases. This profile stays available as a record of how they ruled. If you're preparing for a matter, start from the court's current bench.