Court Opinion

ID: 9454178
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 18:38:29.073366+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:34:00.139476
License: Public Domain

JAMES M. CARTER, Circuit Judge
(dissenting in part, concurring in part).
Judge MERRILL has written a workmanlike opinion in a difficult case. But I cannot agree that under Sec. 15 of the Shipping Act of 1914, 46 U.S.C. § 814 (1964), Congress has given the Federal Maritime Commission jurisdiction over mergers or merger agreements of the type involved in this case. The majority has set forth in the opinion, (pp. 3-4) the contentions of Matson as to lack of jurisdiction and has footnoted the authorities and material on which Matson relies in notes No. 3 to No. 7 inclusive.
The United States also asserts that F.M.C. lacks merger jurisdiction. It argues that where Congress has carved out an exemption from the antitrust laws, the exemption should be strictly construed, United States v. McKesson & Robbins, 351 U.S. 305, 316, 76 S.Ct. 937, 100 L.Ed. 1209 (1956); that the Supreme Court will “not assume that Congress having granted only a limited exemption from the antitrust laws, nonetheless granted an overall inclusive one,” California v. Federal Power Commission, 369 U.S. 482, 485, 82 S.Ct. 901, 904, 8 L.Ed.2d 54 (1962); and to like effect Carnation Company v. Pacific Westbound Conference, 383 U.S. 213, 218, 86 S.Ct. 781, 15 L.Ed.2d 709 (1966); United States v. Philadelphia National Bank, 374 U.S. 321, 350-351, 83 S.Ct. 1715, 10 L.Ed.2d 915 (1963). It contends that the statutory langauge of *803Section 15 (46 U.S.C. § 814 (1964)), read in context, shows no intention to include mergers and compares the express authority to approve mergers contained in the Interstate Commerce Act, Sec. 5(2), 49 U.S.C. 5(2) (1964), the Federal Aviation Act of 1958, Sec. 408, 49 U.S.C. § 1378 (1964) and the Federal Communications Act of 1934, 47 U.S.C. §§ 221, 222 (1964). The United States also contends that the legislative history concerning Section 15 makes clear that Congress did not intend to include the power to approve mergers, calling attention to the Alexander Report, H.Doc. No. 805, 63rd Congress, 2nd Sess.
It would serve no purpose to discuss in detail the contentions above set forth. The position of Matson and the United States as to F.M.C.’s lack of jurisdiction over the merger appears clearly correct.
Volkswagenwerk v. F.M.C., 390 U.S. 261, 88 S.Ct. 929, 19 L.Ed.2d 1090 (1968) as the majority correctly points out, did not deal with a merger. The case dealt with a “cooperative working agreement,” one of a “myriad of restrictive agreements in the maritime industry” (p. 276, 88 S.Ct. p. 937) and one clearly within the scope of the Alexander Report. The case cannot be read to go the whole route and authorize F.M.C.to approve mergers of great shipping corporations.
If F.M.C. has jurisdiction over mergers and merger agreements, then clearly the majority is correct that F.M.C. was premature in approving the “agreement to agree” on a merger. If jurisdiction exists, then the case must go back to F.M.C. for further hearings when an agreement is reached and has specificity and finality.
The majority is correct in its section on “Matson’s Standing to Seek Review” and, if jurisdiction exists in F.M.C., in its sections on “Finality of the Agreement” and “Merits of the Merger Approval.”