The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-05-03
ANTITRUST LAW UPHELD ).
Can't Cloak It's Objects Under the
Form of Corporation.
A DECISION IN MISSOURI
Accounts With Trusts Operating as Cor
porations Cannot Be Collected in
That State-An Alleged
Combination.

st. Louis, May I'm the circuit court
of appeals to-day, with Judges Bland,
Biggs and Bond on the bench, a unan-
imous decision was made in an sap-
peal in the case to the effect that a
trust cannot cloak it's objects under
the form of corporation and evade
the penalties provided for violations Of
the Missouri antitrust law of 1891.
Under this decision accounts with
trusts operating as corporations in Mis-
souri, are not collectible.
In 1897 the S. F. Grote Paint com
pany owed the National Lead company
81, 100 for white lead. Suit was brought
to recover the $1,70O, and, incidentally,
it is claimed to harass the company.
The defense was that the National
Lead company was trust formed to
control prices, in violation of the pro-
visions of the antitrust law of 1891,
one section of which reads:
ANY purchaser of any article or
commodity from any individual COM
pany or corporation transacting bust
ness contrary to the preceding section
of this act shall not be liable for the
price or payment of such article or
commodity and may plead this act as
defense to any suit for such price or
payment
The case was tried before Judge
Hirscell and a jury in the circuit court
at Clayton. A verdict was returned in
favor of the National Lead company.
The S. F. Grote Paint company APP
pealed. To-days decision reverses and
remands the case for re-trial.
The evidence showed that the Ma
tional Lead trust was organized in 1887
to control the lead business of the
country. 1t continued under the trust
form of organization until 1891, at
which time it had absorbed 80 com
panies in the country. In 1891, follow
ing the enactment in this state of leg
islation adverse to trusts. it was re-
| organized in the form of a corpora
ton under the name of the National
Lead company.
The attorneys for the National Lead
company contended in the trial of the
case that the defense set up by the at
torneys for S. F. Grote Paint company
could not stand because the National
Lead company was a corporation not
a trust. They argued to the court of
appeals that the trial court had erred
in admitting evidence of the objects
of the corporation; in other words evil
dence tending to show that it was a
corpora ton organized to control prices
as trust
1t was also claimed that the company.
| having a charter from the state, could
| only be proceeded against in the name
| of the state, and not by an individual.
| In it's decision the court of appeals
| says:
The crucial question in this case is
| whether the plaintiff corporation,
| either in it's organization or business
| opera tons in this state, has offended
any of the provisions of its laws. That
| the predecessor of the plaintiff, the
| National Lead Trust. was an unlawful
combination. both in purpose and in
fact, if sufficiently established by the
nature of the agreement under which
! it was created and the methods and
practices resorted to in furtherance of
| that agreement
The court of appeals decision goes
on to say that the record shows that
| the beneficial owners of stock in the
! National Lead company were the same
| persons or companies which were SUBJ
scribers to the National Lead trust.
and declares that the corporation was
professedly organized to acquire the
| assets of the trust, and that its char
| ter authorized it to acquire the stock
| of other firms in the same line of bust
| ness.
Judge Bond who wrote the decision.
says
"A combination which is Illegal under
the antitrust law cannot be operated
under the cloak of a corporation by
it's constituent members or governing
| bodies