Court Opinion

ID: 9448527
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 23:38:36.828696+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:31:28.056903
License: Public Domain

WATERMAN, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
I dissent. I would affirm on the opinion of Judge Bryan below, reported at 196 F.Supp. 209 (S.D.N.Y.1961).
The majority opinion gives the appellant a significant privilege to which I believe no statute entitles it. Moreover, without mentioning that they have done so, the majority have apparently discred*722ited that portion of the landmark decision of Judge Medina in United States v. Morgan, 118 F.Supp. 621 at 697 (S.D.N.Y.1953), in which he discussed the statutory scheme of the Securities Acts of 1933 and 1934 and stated that those acts do not create any implied exemptions from the Sherman Act.
In other provisions of the Securities Exchange Act, namely those sections governing over-the-counter brokers’ and dealers’ associations, 52 Stat. 1070 (1938) , 15 U.S.C.A. § 78o-3, the draftsmen of our securities statutes provided an explicit exemption from the antitrust laws. 15 U.S.C.A. § 78o-3(n). The presence of explicit exemptions in certain parts of a statute should make us hesitate to find a congressional intention to create implicit exemptions elsewhere in the same legislation.
In United States v. Borden Co., 308 U.S. 188, 60 S.Ct. 182, 84 L.Ed. 181 (1939) , involving the scope of the Agricultural Marketing Agreement Act, 7 U.S.C.A. §§ 601-659, it was argued that by the passage of that regulatory legislation Congress had created an implied exemption from the antitrust laws. The Supreme Court rejected the argument, stating, at pp. 197-198, 60 S.Ct. at p. 188, 84 L.Ed. 181:
“In the opinion of the court below, the existence of the authority vested in the Secretary of Agriculture, although unexercised, wholly destroys the operation of § 1 of the Sherman Act with respect to the marketing of agricultural commodities.
“We are of the opinion that this conclusion is erroneous. No provision of that purport appears in the Agricultural Act. While effect is expressly given, as we shall see, to agreements and orders which may validly be made by the Secretary of Agriculture, there is no suggestion that in their absence, and apart from such qualified authorization and such requirements as they contain, the commerce in agricultural commodities is stripped of the safeguards set up by the Anti-Trust Act and is left open to the restraints, however unreasonable, which conspiring producers, distributors and their allies may see fit to impose. We are unable to find that such a grant of immunity by virtue of the inaction, or limited action, of the Secretary has any place in the statutory plan. We cannot believe that Congress intended to create ‘so great a breach in historic remedies and sanctions.’
“It is a cardinal principle of construction that repeals by implication are not favored. When there are two acts upon the same subject, the rule is to give effect to both if possible.”
As a further reason for not reading in any implied exemption in that statute the court also pointed out, at 200-01, that the Agricultural Marketing Act provided explicit exemptions to the antitrust laws in those areas where that was the congressional intention. And in State of Georgia v. Pennsylvania R.R. Co., 324 U.S. 439, 65 S.Ct. 716, 89 L.Ed. 1051 (1945), the Court stated, at pp. 456-457, 65 S.Ct. at pp. 725-726, 89 L.Ed. 1051:
“These carriers are subject to the anti-trust laws. United States v. Southern Pacific Co., 259 U.S. 214 [42 S.Ct. 496, 66 L.Ed. 907]. Conspiracies among carriers to fix rates were included in the broad sweep of the Sherman Act. United States v. Trans-Missouri Freight Ass’n, 166 U.S. 290 [17 S.Ct. 540, 41 L.Ed. 1007]; United States v. Joint Traffic Ass’n, 171 U.S. 505 [19 S.Ct. 25, 43 L.Ed. 259]. Congress by § 11 of the Clayton Act entrusted the Commission with authority to enforce compliance with certain of its provisions ‘where applicable to common carriers’ under the Commission’s jurisdiction. It has the power to lift the ban of the anti-trust laws in favor of carriers who merge or consolidate (New York Central Securities Corp. v. United States, 287 U.S. 12, 25-26 [53 S.Ct. 45, 48, 49, 77 L.Ed. 138]) and the duty to give *723weight to the anti-trust policy of the nation before approving mergers and consolidations. McLean Trucking Co. v. United States, 321 U.S. 67 [64 S.Ct. 370, 88 L.Ed. 544]. But Congress has not given the Commission comparable authority to remove rate-fixing combinations from the prohibitions contained in the antitrust laws. It has not placed these combinations under the control and supervision of the Commission. Nor has it empowered the Commission to proceed against such combinations and through cease and desist orders or otherwise to put an end to their activities. Regulated industries are not per se exempt from the Sherman Act. United States v. Borden Co., 308 U.S. 188, 198 et seq., 60 S.Ct. 182, 188 et seq., 84 L.Ed. 181. It is true that the Commission’s regulation of carriers has greatly expanded since the Sherman Act. See Arizona Grocery Co. v. Atchison, T. & S. F. R. Co., 284 U.S. 370, 385-386 [52 S.Ct. 183, 184, 185, 76 L.Ed. 348]. But it is elementary that repeals by implication are not favored. Only a clear repugnancy between the old law and the new results in the former giving way and then only pro tanto to the extent of the repugnancy. United States v. Borden, supra, pp. 198, 199, 60 S.Ct. at pages 198, 199, 84 L.Ed. 181. None of the powers acquired by the Commission since the enactment of the Sherman Act relates to the regulation of rate-fixing combinations. Twice congress has been tendered proposals to legalize rate-fixing combinations. But it has not adopted them. In view of this history we can only conclude that they have no immunity from the anti-trust laws.”
I believe with Judge Bryan that, as applied to the facts in this case, there is no clear repugnancy between the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and the Sherman Act, which requires the blanket exemption from the antitrust law which the majority here finds.
The majority believes that it can leave enforcement of the antitrust laws in the hands of the Securities and Exchange Commission despite the fact that that agency’s expertise does not involve matters of antitrust law, and it does not appear that Congress intended that the Commission was to be an overseer of the antitrust laws. I do not subscribe to that belief.