Opinion ID: 333774
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: mr. pitchford's standing to sue.

Text: 18 At trial Mr. Pitchford claimed that he was entitled to damages, because of income that he had lost as a result of the various restraints by PEI on Pitchford Scientific. Mr. Pitchford also sought to recover the salary he lost as president of another firm, not a party to this action, Pitchford Manufacturing. It was alleged that from 1962 to 1968 PEI obstructed the development by Pitchford Manufacturing of Portaspec, a product Mr. Pitchford was eager to place on the market. In addition to the award to Pitchford Scientific, the jury awarded $72,000 to Mr. Pitchford for his personal claims. 19 On appeal, Mr. Pitchford contends that, even without considering the Portaspec issue, he would be justified in recovering an amount 'at least equal to his average annual earnings of $57,000 per year between 1967 and 1970.' Mr. Pitchford does not point to anything in the record to justify this particular measure of damages. 20 PEI, however, asserts that Mr. Pitchford had no standing to sue and that, consequently, the jury award to Mr. Pitchford as an individual was improper. Since the record indicates that PEI's business was conducted with Pitchford Scientific and not with Mr. Pitchford personally, any injury under the alleged violations, PEI argues, was suffered by that corporation alone. 21 There is no proof that any of the restraints were directed against Mr. Pitchford individually as a shareholder or as an officer of either Pitchford Scientific or Pitchford Manufacturing. Consequently, any harm to Mr. Pitchford would have to flow derivatively from injuries done the companies of which he was a shareholder and an officer. 5 22 This Court has adopted the precept that 'the language (in section 4 of the Clayton Act) does not include indirect harm that the individual may (have suffered) as a stockholder through injury inflicted upon the corporation.' 6 As this Court noted as early as 1910: 23 Certainly it is not apparent that (the Sherman Act) was intended to or did confer upon hundreds of thousands of stockholders individual rights of action when the wrongs could have been equally well and more economically be redressed by a single unit in the name of the corporation. 7 24 Hence, Mr. Pitchford in his capacity as shareholder is without standing. 25 A denial of standing applies with equal force to Mr. Pitchford in his status as an officer of Pitchford Scientific. 8 Mr. Pitchford alleged that his salary as president of the firm was less than it would have been had the firm been able to market electronic instruments free of the restrictions imposed by PEI. Mr. Pitchford cannot, however, obtain standing merely by shifting profit from his shareholder pocket to his officer pocket. 26 Moreover, salaries of corporate officers are not necessarily tied to corporate profits; other factors may weigh in the balance. To permit suits by officers for salaries lost in consequence of antitrust violations on the basis of facts such as were presented here would open the door to conjectural damage claims. Mere assertion of a relation between a corporation's losses and its officers' salaries without more does not provide the foundation necessary to establish standing to sue. If his salary as president is not simply the reverse side of his earnings as principal shareholder of the company, any reduction in his salary attributable to PEI's practices is too far removed along the causal chain to entitle Mr. Pitchford to standing. 27 The same reasoning applies to Mr. Pitchford's standing as an officer of Pitchford Manufacturing. While the corporation might have a cause of action on the basis of the facts alleged here, the corporation's president can have no standing to sue in these circumstances. 28 Accordingly, based on the facts present in this suit, Mr. Pitchford is without standing to sue as an individual, and all portions of the judgment granting recovery to Mr. Pitchford personally must be reversed. 29