Court Opinion

ID: 9444511
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 21:03:23.333989+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:29:54.025113
License: Public Domain

WILBUR K. MILLER, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
Darnell alleges in his complaint that Markwood and his rental agents
“ * * * have secured control of all of the office space in the District of Columbia which is suitable and desirable for use in the conduct of the business of furnishing personnel placement and counseling services to the general public, * *
It is, of course, obvious that the defendants and their unknown alleged conspirators have not obtained, and cannot obtain, control of all the hundreds of office buildings, large and small, which we judicially know exist in this community of some 850,000 people. Nothing in the complaint indicates that a building must be of any particular type or in any particular location in order to be “suitable and desirable for use in the conduct” of Darnell’s business. It follows that, as suitable office rooms are so numerous, it is palpably absurd to say the defendants control all such space and deny Darnell access to it. The extravagant allegation above quoted is, in my opinion, patently incapable of being proved.
Moreover, the plaintiff’s claim that the alleged conspirators have damaged him by excluding him from Markwood’s building and from “other suitable and desirable office space in the District of Columbia” is belied by the complaint itself, which shows Darnell has obtained another office just a block away from Mark-wood’s building. I would affirm the judgment of the District Court.