"This court concludes that the most favorable view, which can be had of the claims which plaintiffs assert against Moore, and upon which relief can be granted, is that the plaintiffs might have had a claim against him for part of the amount of royalties paid to him. Plaintiffs' difficulty here is that they are specifically precluded from asserting any such claims by Chief Judge Tehan's order of March 31, 1953, which denied plaintiffs' Motion, `* * * for leave to amend their complaint asking in substance for affirmative relief against the defendant, Moore, upon the ground of having only recently obtained the information that Moore had an interest in the patent and that he had received and was receiving royalties from the licensing of the patent; * * *.'" Boris v. Moore, D.C.E.D.Wis. 1957, 152 F. Supp. 595, 600. We hold that Judge Tehan did not abuse his discretion in denying plaintiffs' motion to amend their complaint in his order of March 31, 1953.
This action is brought for certain patent royalties, the rights to which are alleged to have arisen prior to October 1937. The complaint was dismissed as to the defendant Moore by order of this court of even date herewith, 152 F. Supp. 595, on the ground it failed to state a claim against him upon which relief could be granted. The issue of liability having been severed from the issue of damages, and the separate defense of laches having been then severed from the other issues on liability, the issue and separate defense of laches was tried before the court during the period from December 26, 1956, to January 17, 1957.
Where there has been a partial assignment, the assignee and the assignor (who still retains part of the substantive right) should join as plaintiffs, each suing in his own name. "The rule with respect to partial assignments is that . . . the partial assignor of a chose in action should be joined with the assignee." Boris v. Moore, 152 F. Supp. 595, 599 (E.D. Wis. 1957) (in a suit brought by the assignee, court joined the assignor under Fed.R.Civ.P. 17 (a)). See Airlines Reporting Corp. v. S. and N. Travel, Inc., 857 F. Supp. 1043, 1047 (E.D.N.Y. 1994) (an assignee for purposes of collection holds legal title to the debt and is a real party in interest, even though the assignee must account to the assignor for whatever is recovered in the action); J. W. Smith H. B. Zobel, Rules of Practice ยง 17.5 (1975).