Arthur Loomis Sanborn

United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin district Appointed by Theodore Roosevelt (Republican) 29 signed orders read

How Judge Sanborn decides

Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.

What persuades

Sanborn treated repeated adjudications and widespread public acquiescence as powerful support for interim patent relief.

“There is no question of the validity of the patent which has been several times adjudicated, and whose validity has been acquiesced in by the public almost universally.”

Sanborn required the statutory intent element before treating butter as adulterated for tax purposes.

“Under the statute it must appear that there was an intent to cause the absorption of an abnormal quantity of water.”

Procedural preferences

Sanborn favored resolving closely connected patent and unfair-competition counterclaims in one action.

“These matters ought to be all disposed of in one suit, as they relate to questions very closely connected together.”

Sanborn treated an order granting a new trial as interlocutory and therefore open to reconsideration before final judgment.

“The order of February 24, 1913, granting a new trial for an insufficient reason, should be set aside”

Cautions

Sanborn enforced jurisdictional limits even when the result prevented a claim from reaching its merits.

“It is not an agreeable duty to be obliged to dismiss on a technical ground like this; but I am convinced that the maritime law gives no lien, and that the libel must therefore be dismissed.”

Signed rulings

A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.

Automatic Recording Safe Co. v. Savings Loan & Trust Co.
· 1915-06-07
Patent infringement claim (plaintiff) Granted in part

“claims 6 and 7, are infringed, and the others not”

Baldwin Co-Operative Creamery Ass'n v. Williams
· 1916-05-05
Tax refund claim (plaintiff) Granted

“In the absence of any intent to adulterate the butter, or produce an abnormal quantity of water, it was held that the case was not within the statute.”

United States v. Chicago, M. & St. P. Ry. Co.
· 1914-04-16
Hours of service enforcement claim (United States) Granted in part

“Defendant having confessed to a technical breach of the law, judgment against it for costs only should be entered.”

Iowa Washing Mach. Co. v. Saecker
· 1915-01-12
Preliminary injunction (plaintiff) Denied

“Decree for defendant, with costs.”

Hinman v. Starch Bros.
· 1917-11-09
Patent infringement claim (plaintiff) Granted

“A decree should be entered for complainants, finding infringement in making and selling Exhibits 3 and 8, and equivalent devices, and for an injunction an.d accounting, with costs.”

Greenwald v. Weiss
· 1910-06-07
Patent infringement claim (plaintiff) Granted

“Complainants are entitled to decree for a perpetual injunction, and for damages and profits.”

In re Hogan
· 1911-04-13
Bankruptcy petition for review (petitioner) Granted

“I think the order of the referee should be reversed.”

United States v. Corbett
· 1908-06-05

The opinion explains why the indictment’s statutory theory failed but does not state a final dispositive command in the published text.

The Aurora
· 1912-03-02
Admiralty lien claim (libelant) Denied

“the libel must therefore be dismissed.”

United States v. Amo
· 1919-09-18
Motion in arrest of judgment (defendant) Denied

“The motion in arrest of judgment is denied.”

United States Expansion Bolt Co. v. H. G. Kroncke Hardware Co.
· 1914-08-05
Motion to intervene (defendant) Granted

“The motion of the defendant to intervene is allowed”

Motions to strike (plaintiff) Denied

“the motions of the plaintiff to strike out portions of the answer and six interrogatories are denied.”

Storey v. Storey
· 1915-03-26
Motion for judgment on verdict (defendant) Granted in part

“The order of February 24, 1913, granting a new trial for an insufficient reason, should be set aside; plaintiff to' have until April 16, 1915, to give notice that he desires a new trial”

Caseload & timing

From public federal docket records for this judge.

No assigned docket records were returned for Sanborn’s tenure, so no caseload mix or case-duration summary is available.

Put Judge Sanborn's record to work

Ezel drafts and answers grounded in this exact profile: how Judge Sanborn actually rules, not a generic AI guess.

Opens in Ezel Pro. Every answer is grounded in Judge Sanborn's own signed orders and cites them.