01-1493 International Armor & Limousine Co. v. Moloney Coachbuilders, Inc.

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“A claim might arise under federal law even though all dispositive issues depend on state law if the remedies differ. Suppose that Illinois would give Moloney Coachbuilders actual damages, plus an injunction, if Earle Moloney broke his promises, but that federal law would provide treble damages if the broken promise amounted to misappropriation of Moloney Coachbuilders’ trademark. Then breach of contract under state law would set up a genuine, distinctive federal claim. But the parties’ supplemental briefs do not contend that the Lanham Act affords any remedy that is unavailable under the state law of contract, or makes that remedy easier to obtain, or in this case serves any role other than as a veneer laid over the state-law core. International Armor’s complaint alerts the district court to the contractual foundation, and the counterclaim rubs it in; it describes the 1990 agreement in para.3, even before it identifies the parties to the case! We therefore treat this ownership dispute as what it is, a claim arising under the state law of contracts.”

Vacated and remanded.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Nordberg, J., Easterbrook, J.