Opinion ID: 1921
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Hess

Text: In Hess, Count Two of the Plaintiffs' complaint asserted a monopolization claim in violation of Section 2 of the Sherman Act and sought an injunction essentially to prevent Dentsply from both imposing exclusive dealing agreements on the Dealers and retaliating against those Dealers that do not submit to Dentsply's demands. Section 2 of the Sherman Act imposes liability on [e]very person who shall monopolize, or attempt to monopolize, or combine or conspire with any other person or persons, to monopolize any part of the trade or commerce among the several States[.] 15 U.S.C. § 2. A private party may pursue injunctive relief against threatened loss or damage stemming from a violation of Section 2. 15 U.S.C. § 26. To meet their initial summary judgment burden on their claim for injunctive relief, the Plaintiffs had to show (1) threatened loss or injury cognizable in equity; (2) proximately resulting from the alleged antitrust violation. McCarthy v. Recordex Serv., Inc., 80 F.3d 842, 856 (3d Cir.1996) (citations omitted). [T]he initial question is ... `whether [the Plaintiffs] ha[ve] raised a genuine issue of material fact sufficient to show a threat of antitrust injury' if [Dentsply] engage[s] in future violations of the type alleged. B-S Steel of Kan., Inc. v. Tex. Indus., Inc., 439 F.3d 653, 668 (10th Cir.2006) (quoting R.C. Bigelow, Inc. v. Unilever N. V., 867 F.2d 102, 107 (2d Cir.1989)). In other words, to meet their burden the Plaintiffs had to demonstrate a significant threat of injury from an impending violation of the antitrust laws or from a contemporary violation likely to continue or recur. Zenith Radio Corp. v. Hazeltine Research, Inc., 395 U.S. 100, 130, 89 S.Ct. 1562, 23 L.Ed.2d 129 (1969) (citations omitted). The Plaintiffs sought to meet their burden primarily by relying on the doctrine of collateral estoppel and this Court's decision in United States v. Dentsply International, Inc., 399 F.3d 181 (3d Cir.2005) ( Dentsply or the Government Case). There the United States sued Dentsply for monopolization in violation of Section 2. This Court reversed the district court's post-trial judgment for Dentsply and remanded with instructions to grant the injunctive relief sought by the government. Id. at 197. We concluded that Dentsply both possessed monopoly power in the artificial tooth market and had used that power to foreclose competition. Id. at 196. Our conclusion was predicated primarily on Dentsply's adoption of Dealer Criterion 6, a policy that prohibited dealers from add[ing] further tooth lines [other than those purchased from Dentsply] to their product offering and that was enforced against most Dealers. Id. at 185 (quotation marks omitted). In their summary judgment motion in Hess, the Plaintiffs argued that our holding in the Government Case that Dentsply had engaged in anticompetitive practices compelled an inference of antitrust injury to the Plaintiffs. The District Court disagreed, concluding that while such an inference was certainly plausible, a determination of injury-in-fact to the Plaintiffs was not necessary to our decision in the Government Case. As a consequence, the District Court found that collateral estoppel did not apply. [3] Under the doctrine of collateral estoppel, once an issue is actually and necessarily determined by a court of competent jurisdiction, that determination is conclusive in subsequent suits based on a different cause of action involving a party to the prior litigation. Montana v. United States, 440 U.S. 147, 153, 99 S.Ct. 970, 59 L.Ed.2d 210 (1979) (citations omitted). The following four elements are required for the doctrine to apply: (1) the identical issue was previously adjudicated; (2) the issue was actually litigated; (3) the previous determination was necessary to the decision; and (4) the party being precluded from relitigating the issue was fully represented in the prior action. Szehinskyj v. Attorney Gen. of the United States, 432 F.3d 253, 255 (3d Cir.2005) (citation omitted). For interrelated reasons, we do not find that any of the first three elements required for collateral estoppel is met here. But most significantly, we do not find that the third element is satisfied. See Hawksbill Sea Turtle v. Fed. Emergency Mgmt. Agency, 126 F.3d 461, 475 (3d Cir.1997) (the application of collateral estoppel is inappropriate if any one element is not met). The Restatement describes that element as follows: If issues are determined but the judgment is not dependent upon the determinations, relitigation of those issues in a subsequent action between the parties is not precluded. Such determinations have the characteristics of dicta, and may not ordinarily be the subject of an appeal by the party against whom they were made. In these circumstances, the interest in providing an opportunity for a considered determination, which if adverse may be the subject of an appeal, outweighs the interest in avoiding the burden of relitigation. Restatement (Second) of Judgments § 27 cmt. h (1982). [I]n determining whether the issue was essential to the judgment, we must look to whether the issue was critical to the judgment or merely dicta. Nat'l R.R. Passenger Corp. v. Pa. Pub. Util. Comm'n, 288 F.3d 519, 527 (3d Cir. 2002) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). Applying these standards to this case, we do not find that any inference of anticompetitive injury to the Plaintiffs was essential to our determination that Dentsply had committed an antitrust violation. The Plaintiffs' claim for injunctive relief hinges on whether they have established antitrust injury. To establish as much, they had to show injury of the type the antitrust laws were designed to prevent and that flows from that which makes [Dentsply's] acts unlawful. Cargill, Inc. v. Monfort of Colo., Inc., 479 U.S. 104, 113, 107 S.Ct. 484, 93 L.Ed.2d 427 (1986) (quoting Brunswick Corp. v. Pueblo Bowl-O-Mat, Inc., 429 U.S. 477, 489, 97 S.Ct. 690, 50 L.Ed.2d 701 (1977)). In the Government Case, we had to decide, in relevant part, whether Dentsply's conduct was anticompetitive. To that end, our analysis had two focal points: first, whether Dentsply possessed monopoly power; and second, whether Dentsply used that power to edge out competition. See Dentsply, 399 F.3d at 186-87. Our finding that Dentsply's conduct led to price increases in the relevant market did not require us to find that anyone other than Dentsply's competitors was injured. Put another way, we did not need to conclude that any upstream purchasers, such as the Plaintiffs, were threatened with injury. Simply because such a conclusion may be gleaned from the Government Case does not mean that it was essential to our holding. Cf. Lynne Carol Fashions, Inc. v. Cranston Print Works Co., 453 F.2d 1177, 1183 (3d Cir. 1972) ([P]arties should be estopped only on issues they actually deem important, and not on incidental matters.). Under these circumstances, the District Court did not abuse its broad discretion in concluding that Dentsply should not be precluded from defending itself against the Plaintiffs' claim for injunctive relief. See Parklane Hosiery Co. v. Shore, 439 U.S. 322, 331, 99 S.Ct. 645, 58 L.Ed.2d 552 (1979). In addition to declining to collaterally estop Dentsply, the District Court concluded that the Plaintiffs did not meet their summary judgment burden because they made no showing of antitrust injury. The Court reasoned that because the Government Case injunction already prohibited Dentsply from pursuing the very conduct that gave rise to the Plaintiffs' claim, the Plaintiffs had to demonstrate a need for further, non-duplicative measures to those already in place. Howard Hess I, 516 F.Supp.2d at 335 (footnote omitted). In the District Court's view, the Plaintiffs failed to present any evidence of a threat of future injury and therefore fell short of that mark. In United States v. Borden Co., 347 U.S. 514, 74 S.Ct. 703, 98 L.Ed. 903 (1954), the Supreme Court held that a private litigant's award of an antitrust injunction against a defendant does not operate as a bar to the government's right to pursue its own injunction against the same defendant, explaining that the injunctive relief afforded private litigants supplements government enforcement of the antitrust laws and that private and public antitrust injunctions were designed to be cumulative, not mutually exclusive. Id. at 518, 74 S.Ct. 703 (citations omitted); see also id. at 519, 74 S.Ct. 703 (Different policy considerations govern each of these. They may proceed simultaneously or in disregard of each other. In short, the Government's right and duty to seek an injunction to protect the public interest exist without regard to any private suit or decree. (internal citation omitted)). The Plaintiffs argue that the District Court attempted to maneuver around [Borden] on the ground that, in Borden, unlike here, it was the private plaintiff rather than the Government who was first to obtain the requested relief. (Appellants' Br. 32 (record citation omitted).) In their view, under the antitrust laws relief may be granted to private plaintiffs based on the same threat that justified a prior grant of similar injunctive relief to the Government. (Id. at 33.) It is true that Borden refused to say that the existence of one type of injunction, public or private, cannot at least be taken into account by a trial judge in weighing whether a subsequent plaintiff, whether public or private, has shown the requisite antitrust injury. See 347 U.S. at 520, 74 S.Ct. 703. But we do not understand Borden, or any other antitrust authority, to require the Plaintiffs to have established a need for an injunction that was non-duplicative, in the District Court's words, as Borden makes clear that private and public injunctions may exist concomitantly. See also N.J. Wood Finishing Co. v. Minn. Mining & Mfg. Co., 332 F.2d 346, 350 (3d Cir. 1964). Although the law is clear that public and private antitrust injunctions may coexist without regard for one another, nothing in Borden intimates that a private litigant is relieved of its evidentiary burden of showing an entitlement to injunctive relief when the government has already obtained its own injunction. We said as much in Mid-West Paper Products Co. v. Continental Group, Inc., 596 F.2d 573 (3d Cir.1979). There the district court granted summary judgment for the defendants on the antitrust claims of private plaintiffs, effectively holding that the plaintiffs were not entitled to an injunction. We reversed. We disagreed with the defendants' contention that remand [was] unnecessary because ... it [was] evident that the plaintiffs [were] not entitled to injunctive relief. Id. at 594 n. 85. In our view, the plaintiffs were not necessarily foreclosed from injunctive relief by the mere pendency of the government and direct purchaser suits for similar remedies[.] Id. Under Borden, we thought the plaintiffs' injunction claim could go forward if they were able to establish a `significant threat of injury' under general equity principles. Id. (quoting Borden, 347 U.S. at 519, 74 S.Ct. 703). We further suggested that the district court could consider whether any meaningful difference exists in the present case `with respect to the parties capable of enforcing' the injunction, or whether the reality here is that `one injunction is as effective as 100, and concomitantly, that 100 injunctions are no more effective than one[.]' Id. (quoting Hawaii v. Standard Oil Co., 405 U.S. 251, 261, 92 S.Ct. 885, 31 L.Ed.2d 184 (1972)). For purposes of this appeal, two important principles emerge from Mid-West Paper. First, under Borden a trial court faced with an injunction request may factor into its equitable analysis the effect of another injunction on the plaintiff's showing of injury. Therefore, the District Court's consideration of the Government Case injunction in its assessment of the Plaintiffs' right to injunctive relief was not impermissible per se. While the District Court likely ascribed too much weight to the Government Case injunction in assessing the Plaintiffs' right to their own injunction, the Court clearly also found that the Plaintiffs failed to meet their burden of presenting evidence to show that they were entitled to such relief. And that brings us to Mid-West Paper 's second important principle: a plaintiff bears the obligation of presenting evidence demonstrating injury even where another injunction is already in place. There can be no doubt that the Plaintiffs left that obligation unfulfilled. As they did before the District Court, the Plaintiffs refer us to several factors that, in their view, show why an injunction is necessary. Significantly, however, the Plaintiffs have packaged those factors as mere arguments, not evidence. That approach does not carry the day at summary judgment. Cf. Thornton v. United States, 493 F.2d 164, 167 (3d Cir.1974). The Plaintiffs claim, for instance, that the term of the Government Case injunctionseven and one-half yearsis not long enough to ensure that they will not suffer harm. They assert that Dentsply still retains monopolistic market share despite that injunction and will be able to resume its anticompetitive practices once the injunction expires because, according to them, the market for artificial teeth is relatively stagnant. But even assuming that an antitrust defendant's ability to engage in anticompetitive conduct were, standing alone, enough to justify injunctive relief, the Plaintiffs' prognosis of Dentsply's future conduct is unsupported by record evidence. In any event, if the Plaintiffs are threatened with antitrust injury at or near the end of the Government Case injunction's term, nothing prohibits them from petitioning a court for relief at that point. The Plaintiffs also rely on the alleged nationwide presence of 7,000 dental laboratories that are better situated to monitor Dentsply's exclusive dealing practices[.] (Appellants' Br. 38.) Tellingly, the Plaintiffs cite no authority for the proposition that a plaintiff may avoid its obligation of showing injury merely by claiming to be a more effective antitrust policeman than the government, and we are aware of no such authority. Cf. Massachusetts v. Microsoft Corp., 373 F.3d 1199, 1245 (D.C.Cir.2004). Similarly, the Plaintiffs request that Dentsply be prohibited from attending any meeting or phone call between any dental dealer and any dental laboratory (Appellant's Br. 40-41), but have elected not to provide any evidence that any such meetings or phone calls are now injuring them or will soon do so. Finally, the Plaintiffs point to Dentsply's purported unrepentance regarding its past conduct as a basis for injunctive relief. They assert that Dentsply still refuses to acknowledge the wrongful nature of its conduct. (Appellants' Br. 44 (internal quotation marks omitted).) The antitrust laws, however, afford no relief on that basis alone. Cf. Sec. & Exch. Comm'n v. Bonastia, 614 F.2d 908, 912 (3d Cir. 1980). In a nutshell, the various examples of alleged injury the Plaintiffs have brought to our attention are purely speculative and thus are insufficient to justify an award of injunctive relief. See, e.g., City of Pittsburgh v. West Penn Power Co., 147 F.3d 256, 269 (3d Cir.1998). A review of their pleadings before the District Court reflects that the Plaintiffs for the most part sought to meet their summary judgment burden simply by telling the District Court what they did not need to do. Specifically, in their moving papers the Plaintiffs asserted that they did not need to prove irreparable injury; did not have to show that they had standing to sue for damages; and were not barred from obtaining injunctive relief merely because the government had already secured one against Dentsply. Importantly, following remand from this Court's prior appeal, there is no hint in the record that the Plaintiffs sought to engage in any additional discovery or made any effort to introduce any factual material for the District Court to consider. The Plaintiffs' strategy betrays a misunderstanding of the summary judgment stage of litigation. A party moving for summary judgment must clear two hurdles to meet its initial burden. It must show that (1) there are no genuine questions of material fact and (2) the party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c); see McCarthy, 80 F.3d at 847. By telling the District Court what they did not need to establish, the Plaintiffs did not leap high enough. Accordingly, we will affirm the District Court's denial of the Plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment on their monopolization claim against Dentsply.
After the District Court denied their motion for summary judgment, the Plaintiffs asked the Court to amend its summary judgment ruling and for permission to supplement the record with evidence that, in their view, demonstrated the antitrust injury the District Court had found wanting. The District Court construed the motion as one for reconsideration and denied it, concluding that the evidence the Plaintiffs were seeking to introduce would be relevant only if they had shown that Dentsply's anticompetitive conduct would likely recur. [4] Because they had failed to make such a showing, the District Court reasoned, reconsideration was unwarranted. The purpose of a motion for reconsideration... is to correct manifest errors of law or fact or to present newly discovered evidence. Max's Seafood Café, 176 F.3d at 677 (quoting Harsco Corp. v. Zlotnicki, 779 F.2d 906, 909 (3d Cir.1985)). Accordingly, a judgment may be altered or amended if the party seeking reconsideration shows at least one of the following grounds: (1) an intervening change in the controlling law; (2) the availability of new evidence that was not available when the court granted the motion for summary judgment; or (3) the need to correct a clear error of law or fact or to prevent manifest injustice. Id. (citation omitted). The stated aim of the Plaintiffs' motion was to submit the very evidence the District Court had found they had failed to present in their summary judgment motion. However, new evidence, for reconsideration purposes, does not refer to evidence that a party obtains or submits to the court after an adverse ruling. Rather, new evidence in this context means evidence that a party could not earlier submit to the court because that evidence was not previously available. See De Long Corp. v. Raymond Int'l, Inc., 622 F.2d 1135, 1139-40 (3d Cir.1980), overruled on other grounds by Croker v. Boeing Co., 662 F.2d 975 (3d Cir.1981) (en banc). Nothing in the record suggests that the evidence the Plaintiffs sought to present post-summary judgment was unavailable to them when they filed their summary judgment motion. Under these circumstances, the District Court did not abuse its discretion in denying the Plaintiffs' motion for reconsideration, and we therefore will not upset that ruling. See Harsco, 779 F.2d at 909 (district court correctly did not consider affidavit filed after summary judgment was granted because it was available prior to the summary judgment).
After denying the Plaintiffs' motion for an injunction and their motion for reconsideration, the District Court noted the procedurally awkward posture of the case. Howard Hess II, 2008 WL 114354, at , 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1487, at . That awkwardness, according to the District Court, stemmed from the fact that the denial of the Plaintiffs' summary judgment motion effectively barred them from pursuing their claim, thus placing their suit on a dead-end road. As a consequence, the District Court directed the parties to submit either a stipulation or competing orders in Hess and Jersey Dental in order to accommodate a consolidated appeal. Id. at , 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1487, at . Dentsply thereafter moved to dismiss the complaint with prejudice in light of that order. The Plaintiffs opposed Dentsply's motion but submitted their own proposed order dismissing the complaint while purporting to reserve their right to appeal any dismissal. The District Court approved that order, thereby dismissing the complaint with prejudice and denying Dentsply's motion to dismiss as moot. We see no error in the District Court's action. Ordinarily, a district court's denial of a motion for summary judgment means only that there remain genuine questions of material fact for resolution by the fact finder. See Kutner Buick, Inc. v. Am. Motors Corp., 868 F.2d 614, 619 (3d Cir.1989). But here the District Court denied the Plaintiffs' summary judgment motion because it found that there were no genuine questions of material fact. To the extent the Plaintiffs thought that the District Court's denial of their summary judgment motion entitled them to pursue their claims any further, they were mistaken, as a plaintiff asserting antitrust claims does not get to a jury simply by filing a complaint and hoping for the best. Cf. Eastman Kodak Co. v. Image Technical Servs., Inc., 504 U.S. 451, 467-69, 112 S.Ct. 2072, 119 L.Ed.2d 265 (1992); Town Sound & Custom Tops, Inc. v. Chrysler Motors Corp., 959 F.2d 468, 481 (3d Cir.1992) (en banc). The District Court concluded that the Plaintiffs could not prevail on their claim for injunctive relief against Dentsply and, as we explained earlier, we agree with that conclusion. And because the Plaintiffs could go no further on that claim, we likewise agree with the District Court's dismissal of their complaint. The Plaintiffs have given us no compelling reason to disturb that disposition. Accordingly, we will affirm the District Court's dismissal of the complaint in Hess.