Court Opinion

ID: 9420165
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 22:53:13.857171+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:22:22.967401
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Jackson,
with whom Mr. Justice Frankfurter joins,
dissenting.
It appears to me that the Court's opinion is based on assumptions of fact which the petitioner disclaimed in the court below. These assumptions are permissible inferences from the amended complaint only if we disregard the way in which the amendments came about.
*247On hearing, the trial judge apparently considered that a cause of action would be stated only if the complaint alleged that the growing contracts affected the price of sugar in interstate commerce. But the contracts accompanying the pleadings indicated that the effects ran in the other direction. The market price of interstate sugar was the base on which the price of beets was to be figured. The latter price was derived from the income which respondent and others received from sugar sold in the open market over the period of a year. The trial judge therefore suggested that the references to restraint of trade in sugar in interstate commerce created an ambiguity in the complaint. Accordingly, the plaintiff, at the suggestion of the court and for the specific purpose of this appeal, filed an amended complaint which completely eliminated the charge that the agreements complained of affected the price of sugar in interstate commerce, and eliminated the two other counts “to enable the Court herein to pass upon the sufficiency of the first count on its merits and, further, to make possible a speedy and inexpensive review by appeal if the Court held that the first count was insufficient.” 1 The District Court then held that since no beets *248whatever moved in interstate commerce and since there was no charge in the amended complaint that the cost or quality of the product which did move in interstate commerce was in any way affected, no cause of action was *249stated. The appeal was taken and the Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed.
This Court, however, decides the case as though the original complaint as it related to sugar had not only remained unchanged but had been proved by evidence. Despite the deletion from the complaint of the allegation concerning the price of sugar, the Court assumes, without allegation or evidence, that the price of sugar is affected and on that basis builds its thesis that the Sherman Act has been violated. I think in fairness to the litigants and the District Court, the petitioner’s case should be disposed of here on the same basis on which it was pleaded to the courts below.
On the proceedings in the courts below, I would affirm the judgment of the District Court.

 The full text of the Stipulation and Order which was executed by counsel for both parties, and by the District Judge, is as follows:
“Whereas, in oral argument on November 13, 1945, on the motion of defendant to dismiss, etc., Hon. Ben Harrison, the United States District Judge before whom said matter was argued, stated from the bench to counsel herein that he felt that the first cause of action, if supplemented by copies of the contracts attached to the defendant’s motion to dismiss, would not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action, and suggested that it would be a tremendous saving of time and expense if the complaint were amended (a) by setting forth copies of the agreements involved in the first count, (b) by eliminating what the Court considered an ambiguity in the complaint, and (c) by the parties entering into a stipulation to eliminate from the pleadings, for the purpose of the appeal only and without prejudice *248to the rights of the plaintiffs, the second and third causes of action, so as to enable the Court herein to pass upon the sufficiency of the first count on its merits and, further, to make possible a speedy and inexpensive review by appeal if the Court held that the first count was insufficient;
“Now, Wherefore, the parties stipulate, without plaintiffs’ waiving their rights under the second and third counts and without prejudice to any of plaintiffs’ rights thereunder, as follows, to-wit:
“1. Plaintiffs will file an amended complaint herein, attaching copies of the forms of contract in use in 1938, 1939, 1940 and 1941, and omitting the second and third counts.
“2. Said omission of the said second and third counts shall be without prejudice to any of the rights of the plaintiffs as to any cause or causes of action included or includible therein by amendment, and shall not be a retraxit or a dismissal with prejudice.
“3. Defendant herein waives, for the period of time hereinafter set forth, any and all statutes of limitations now or hereafter applicable to the second or third causes of action or any matters therein set forth or includible therein by amendment, and waives the defense of laches as to the second and third causes of action or any matters therein set forth or includible therein by amendment.
“4. Plaintiffs may, at any time prior to six months after the decision on appeal as to the sufficiency of the first count has become final, either amend the amended complaint herein by realleging said second and third counts or any portion of either, or, at any time during said period, file a separate action or actions setting forth said second and third counts or any portion of either, all with the same force and effect as if said second and third counts were continuously included herein as second and third counts from the date of the commencement of this action.
“5. The waiver of the statute of limitations and of the defense of laches herein set forth, and the stipulation permitting the amendment of the amended complaint or the filing of a separate action or actions hereinabove set forth, shall continue until six months after the determination on appeal as to the sufficiency of the first count has become final.”