Jackson advocate. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1939-current, 1961-03-04
PRICE-RIGGING firms FACE
heavy CIVIL DAMAGE SUITS

u W u ~
The nearly 81 million in fines
paid by General Electric, Westing-
house and 81 smaller corporations
may look like small potatoes be-
fore the final chapter is written
on the gigantic conspiracy of lead
ing electrical equipment manufac-
turers to fix prices and divide up
the market through an elaborate
system of rugged bids.
Even before the seven high
ranking company executives began
serving 30-day Jail sentences for
criminal antitrust law violations,
multi-million dollar damage claims
were being staked out by victim
lied purchasers.
The federal government itself
will have one of the biggest claims
for overcharges.
U. S. Attorney Gen. Robert F..
Kennedy announced that the JUS
tice Dept. expects, within the next
two months, to file the first of a
series of civil damage suits on be-
half of some 20 federal agencies
which purchased transformers,
generators and other heavy equip
ment from the companies involved.
The Justice Dept. may also handle
the claim of the Tennessee Valley
Authority, one of the biggest GUS
toners of the companies.
Scores of city and state agencies
and private utilities were also dig
ging into old purchasing records
and coming up with claims for mil
liens of dollars in overcharges-
the basis for civil antitrust suits
under which victimized purchasers
can claim triple damages.
III Cities Involved
The 20 indictments to which the
companies pleaded guilty or en-
tered no-contest pleas covered sales
to I'll municipal governments
all eligible for triple compensation
if they can prove that the prices
they were forced to pay were high
er than those which would have
been charged under competitive
bidding.
While top officials Of General
Electric and other companies said
the purchasers hadn't really been
overcharged despite the admitted
price-fixing, that they had received
"fair value" for the money they
had paid, the buyers for the most
part appeared skeptical of these
assurances.
New York's Mayor Robert F.
Wagner (D) said: "The city will
not stand idly by and be mulcted."
He said New York will sue for
triple damages unless the COM
panies involved voluntarily agreed
to settlements.
Chicago city officials said they
will press claims for more than IS
million. Los Angeles indicated its
claims would run into millions"
Four California electric utilities
Joined in an investigation of over
charges on past purchases. San
Francisco City Attorney Dion K.
Holm said he is asking $1.2 million
in damages from four electric COM
panies in out-of-court negotiations
currently under way. Several states,
including California and New York,
are studying the possibility Of COM
bined suits on behalf of municipal
tiles involved.
Meanwhile the National Institute
of Municipal Law Officers has sent
out feelers to a number of cities re-
garding the possibility Of COM
bined lawsuit. A meeting to ex-
plore the matter further was
scheduled to be held in Washing
ton, D. c., on Feb. %.
At the same time that it was
insisting that prices paid by pur-
chasers were "fair," General Elec-
trio called back from retirement its
former president, Charles E. Will
son, to represent the company in
reviewing" with customers past
sales and ito make adjustments If
warranted by the facts"
GE added: "It is not feasible at
this time to predict the possible
outcome of these reviews"