Court Opinion

ID: 5605949
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-01-11 03:43:24.921219+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:36:56.635544
License: Public Domain

Suit was brought to recover the purchase-price of goods sold and delivered. The defendant pleaded that the plaintiff was an unlawful combination and conspiracy, formed for the purpose of restraining interstate trade, in violation of the acts of Congress; that through a system of contracts with various purchasers it had secured a monopoly of the business, and that the defendant was forced to purchase the commodity from the plaintiff upon whatever terms could be made. The contract of sale was in writing, and provided that the seller would set aside, out of its profits from the manufacture and sale of the commodity for a certain period, an amount equal to ten cents per hundred pounds on all purchases of the commodity which should be made by the plaintiff during a certain period. It was agreed that this rebate or discount should be paid to the defendant at the end of the year next succeeding the period above mentioned, on condition that for the remainder of the previous year and during the whole of the next year the defendant should have purchased the commodity exclusively from the plaintiff. It was averred, in the answer, that under the working of this system of contracts, each purchaser was placed and kept in a situation whereby, if any competing firm entered into the business, the purchaser, by dealing with such competing firm, would sacrifice a large rebate on the last year’s purchases of goods. It was further averred that the entire system of contracts was designed for the purpose of preventing competition, and did in fact prevent competition. It was further averred that the prices charged by the plaintiff were unreasonable, and that each order for goods bought by the defendant contained a clause reciting that the goods were for consumption by the defendant only, and not for resale. It was further averred that the original combination, the, series of contracts referred to in' the answer, the stipulation against resale, and the individual sales, all constituted elements of a general plan or design, which in its entirety constituted a combination or conspiracy intended and having the effect to ' restrain and monopolize interstate trade and eommei'ce, in violation of the Sherman anti-trust act of July 2, 1890; and that the account upon which the suit was brought was made up, in the knowledge of both the defendant and the plaintiff, with direct reference to the agreement heretofore referx-ed to. Held, that the facts set forth in the answer constituted no defense to the action, and that the answer was properly stricken, on motion in the nature of a general demurrer. The case of Continental Wall Paper Co. v. Voight, 212 U. S. 227, is distinguishable from the present case, which falls within the principle announced in Connally v. Union Sewer Pipe Co., 184 U. S. 539.