Opinion ID: 334133
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: the zenith claim

Text: 54 Although this court has previously held that all claims under the antitrust laws arising prior to February 16, 1961 were timed barred, 373 F.2d at 416-17, the appellant claims that under Zenith Radio Corp. v. Hazeltine Research, Inc., 401 U.S. 321, 91 S.Ct. 795, 28 L.Ed.2d 77 (1971) (decided after our prior decision but before the opinion below), it may recover damages resulting from acts prior to February 16, 1961. Zenith holds in effect that even though the acts creating the injury preceded the February 16, 1961 cut-off date, damages may be recovered if in fact and as a result injury was incurred after that date and if prior proof of those damages would have been impossible because their accrual was speculative or their amount and nature unprovable. Id. at 339-40, 91 S.Ct. at 806, 28 L.Ed.2d at 92. 55 Zenith involved a conspiracy which continued into the damage period; as noted by the court below, it is not clear that the Zenith exception to the usual antitrust period of limitations would be applicable to a case such as this where the conspiracy had been terminated prior to the damage period by the consent decree and the Ripley judgment. In any event, Judge Gurfein found that Zenith was not applicable since there was no proof that prior antitrust violations had caused damages during the period after February 16, 1961. That such a causative link between the alleged antitrust violation and the alleged injury is necessary to plaintiff's claim is clear. E. g., Billy Baxter, Inc. v. Coca-Cola, 431 F.2d 183, 187 (2d Cir. 1970), cert. denied, 401 U.S. 923, 91 S.Ct. 877, 27 L.Ed.2d 826 (1971). 56 We need say nothing more about the third claim which is principally based on events occurring within the limitations period. With respect to the first claim, appellant urges that because of UF's prior monopolistic and discriminatory practices, other competitors were precluded from entering the banana production business in Guatemala, thus preventing IRCA from reaching its maximum potential by February 1961, and therefore its revenues were less than they should have been during the damage period. Moreover, this damage, it is argued, was purely speculative prior to the cut-off date, thus bringing it within the Zenith exception. 57 We agree with the court below that while this is a good antitrust theory, plaintiff nonetheless has the burden of establishing that either UF's competitor Standard was discouraged from expanding its holdings or that other potential competitors of UF were prevented from entering the field by UF's pre-1961 antitrust activity. IRCA, which offered no evidence whatever of Standard's frustration or independent entry preclusion by UF, again argues that since the pre-1961 violations were per se violative of the Sherman Act 32 there is no need for it to establish that its customers had the intention, preparedness and capacity to ship more bananas than they actually shipped. But the law seems well settled that the private antitrust litigant has to establish the fact of damage (here, its loss of customers) by evidence of the existence of ready, willing and able purchasers of IRCA services. See Zenith Radio Corp. v. Hazeltine Research, Inc., 395 U.S. 100, 126-27, 89 S.Ct. 1562, 1578, 23 L.Ed.2d 129, 149-150 (1969); Martin v. Phillips Petroleum Co., 365 F.2d 629, 633 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 385 U.S. 991, 87 S.Ct. 600, 17 L.Ed.2d 451 (1966); Volasco Products Co. v. Lloyd A. Fry Roofing Co., 308 F.2d 383, 395-96 (6th Cir. 1962), cert. denied, 372 U.S. 907, 83 S.Ct. 721, 9 L.Ed.2d 717 (1963). This principle was properly applied below. IRCA now claims that this rule only applies where the defendant's competitor is the antitrust plaintiff. While it is true that the cases announcing the principle all involve actions by putative competitors seeking to establish lost profits, it must apply a fortiori to IRCA whose alleged lost profits are dependent upon the presence of a viable customer. The contention that the court below committed error on this point is therefore frivolous.