Court Opinion

ID: 9465670
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 00:52:42.81129+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:39:18.488415
License: Public Domain

MULLIGAN, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
I respectfully dissent. My brother Gur-fein has fully and fairly set forth the facts which in any event are not really disputed. When GAF brought its antitrust action against Kodak in 1973, counsel for both parties entered into an explicit agreement that Kodak would produce documents at the discovery stage but solely for the purposes of that suit and no other. Pursuant to that understanding Kodak surrendered some 400,000 documents, and GAF counsel and economists dutifully indexed and analyzed them to determine their antitrust significance. We were advised on the oral *17argument of this appeal that this exercise cost GAF some two million dollars. When the Antitrust Division of the United States Department of Justice in 1976 indicated its interest in the documents and naturally in the professional opinion of the stable of cognoscenti assembled by the plaintiff, GAF was understandably anxious to provide them. Judge Frankel, however, held that the documents, the indices and the interpretative comments were by express agreement to be utilized solely for the purposes of the private lawsuit. GAF Corp. v. Eastman Kodak Co., 415 F.Supp. 129 (S.D. N.Y.1976). No one seems to question the propriety of the protective order which he issued. Subsequently, Congress enacted the Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976, P.L. 94-435, which inter alia permitted the Government to issue a Civil Investigative Demand (CID) against non-target persons who were in possession of “documentary material” or “information” which related to a civil antitrust investigation.
The Department of Justice thereupon served GAF with a CID requesting the Kodak documents as well as the analyses of the GAF experts whether in final or draft form. While GAF was obviously eager to comply, it was understandably concerned with Judge Frankel’s protective order. Despite the passage of the Amendments, GAF resisted the demand, precipitating this litigation. Served with a similar CID, Kodak did not resist and remains perfectly willing to supply all documents sought by the Government. The Department of Justice, however, was not interested in the Kodak documents but covets the analyses of GAF antitrust counsel and economists. When Kodak sought to intervene in the “friendly” law suit brought by the United States against GAF, both parties initially objected. Judge Owen, realizing that there was no justiciable controversy absent a party with an interest adverse to that of the Government, permitted Kodak’s intervention. GAF, which has filed its brief and argued as an appellee now in alliance with its purported adversary, seeks a reversal of his decision, which in effect sustained the prior protective order in the face of the Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976. This is a peculiar posture indeed for an appellee, but the intervention of Kodak, I presume, preserves justiciability.
In any event I think Judge Owen reached the proper conclusion. GAF is not, as the majority would have it, merely a competitor-informant, a good citizen, surrendering information obtained in the ordinary course of business to a governmental regulatory agency. The documentation it has collected and the self-serving analyses which this permitted, were provided with the understanding that they were to be used only in that private litigation. This has been judicially determined and is undisputed. I fail to understand how a statute subsequently enacted by Congress may be interpreted to void the terms of an agreement freely entered into by sophisticated parties several years prior to its passage. On the contrary, it is in the ultimate interest of the Government and business that such agreements, which are perfectly lawful and equitable, be now observed and respected. I see nothing in the Act or in its legislative history which would permit the evisceration of such an agreement. I would not contort the statute to reach what appears to me a perverse result unless there be a clear expression of congressional intent that prior agreements between parties were to be abrogated. There is none.
The Government argues in effect that it will save the taxpayers millions of dollars if it has the advantage of the GAF analysis. At the same time it argues that it will not be deterred from an objective analysis despite the obvious partiality of the GAF interpretation. How much it will cost the Government to make a contrary analysis and balance the scales we are not told. The question of money seems to me to be totally irrelevant since the issue involves a basic question of business morality and the observance of contract provisions. In view of the highly sophisticated and complicated issues obviously involved, I believe it would be more appropriate for the Government, which has been given complete access to the Kodak documents, to make its own de novo *18and unjaundiced determination of monopolization, if there be any. When the private action is tried and determined the Government will have access to the record and the expert opinion it seeks. I do not believe there is any peril to the Republic if the Government waits until the private attorneys general proceed to enforce the Sherman Act. This course also permits the parties to observe the terms of their discovery agreement. I would therefore affirm.