Court Opinion

ID: 9642932
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 18:13:03.196731+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:54.768312
License: Public Domain

MATHEWS* Circuit Judge
[(dissenting).
Appellees demurred to appellant’s second amended complaint (hereafter called the complaint) on four grounds: (1) That it does not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action; (2) that it is ambiguous ; (3) that it is unintelligible; and (4) that it is uncertain. The District Court sustained the demurrer, with leave to amend the complaint, but appellant elected not to amend. Judgment was accordingly entered dismissing the action. This appeal followed.
The complaint states: “That this is an action at law for damages brought under the provisions of section 7 of the Act of Congress approved July 2nd, 1890, commonly known as the Sherman Act, and for all the relief therein provided, because of the violations by the defendants [appellees], and each of them, of the provisions of sections 1 and 2 of the said Sherman Act.”
Section 1 of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, 26 Stat. 209, 15 U.S.C.A. § 1, provides: “Every contract, combination in the form of trust or otherwise, or conspiracy, in restraint of trade or commerce among the several States, or with foreign nations, is hereby declared to be illegal. Every person who shall make any such contract or engage in any such combination or conspiracy, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and, on conviction thereof, shall be punished. * * ”
Section 2 of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, 15 U.S.C.A. § 2, provides: “Every person who shall monopolize, or attempt to monopolize, or combine or conspire with any other person or persons, to monopolize any part of the trade or commerce among the several States, or with foreign nations, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and, on conviction thereof, shall be punished. * * * ”
Section 7 of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, 26 Stat. 210, 15 U.S.C.A. § 15 note,1 *892provides: “Any person who shall be injured in his business or property by any other person or corporation by reason of anything forbidden or declared to be unlawful'by this act, may sue therefor in any [district] court of the United States in the district in which the defendant resides or is found, without respect to the amount in controversy, and shall recover three fold the damages by him sustained, and the costs of suit, including a reasonable attorney’s fee.”
The' complaint does not allege that appellees made any contract or engaged in any combination or conspiracy in restraint of trade or commerce among the several states or with foreign nations, or that they monopolized, attempted to monopolize, or combined or conspired to monopolize, any part óf such trade or commerce. The nearest approach to such an allegation is in paragraph XII of the complaint, which reads as follows :
“Plaintiff is informed and believes and therefore alleges that * * * the defendants * * * entered into and consummated a plan, scheme or conspiracy * * * to .effect, or attempt to effect a monopoly in the manufacture, sale and distribution of radio loud speakers in interstate commerce. * * * That pursuant to said plan, scheme or conspiracy and in order to effect the purposes thereof, the defendants * * * did jointly and severally, enter into a plan, scheme or combination, in restraint of trade. * * * ”
Thus, it will be noted, the complaint alleges that defendants entered into (1) a plan, scheme or conspiracy and (2) a plan, scheme or combination. Whether the alleged plan, scheme, or conspiracy was, in fact, a conspiracy, the complaint does not say; nor does it say whether the alleged plan, scheme, or combination was, in fact, a combination. Each may have been merely a plan or scheme. The Sherman Anti-Trust Act deals, not with plans or schemes, but with combinations and conspiracies. The complaint in this case does not charge either a combination or a conspiracy.
Even assuming that the alleged plan, scheme, or conspiracy was, in fact, a conspiracy, and that the alleged plan, scheme, or combination was, in fact, a combination, it still does not appear that such combination or conspiracy violated the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. As described in the complaint, the alleged plan, scheme, or conspiracy was one “to effect, or to attempt to effect a monopoly in the manufacture, sale and distribution of radio loud speakers in interstate commerce.” The Sherman AntiTrust Act says nothing about conspiracies to “effect” or to attempt to “effect” monopolies. It says nothing about monopolies in the manufacture, sale, or distribution of goods. It does condemn conspiracies in restraint of trade or commerce among the several states and with foreign nations, and conspiracies to monopolize such trade or commerce, but no such conspiracy is alleged in this case.
As described in the complaint, the alleged plan, scheme, or combination was one “in restraint of trade,” but there is no allegation that it was in restraint of trade among the several states or with foreign nations. The trade which it restrained may have been wholly intrastate. Such restraints are not forbidden by the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.
The complaint alleges, in substance, that after entering into the above-mentioned plan, scheme, or conspiracy, defendants did certain acts in furtherance thereof. These acts consisted chiefly of instituting and prosecuting, and threatening to institute and prosecute, patent infringement suits. It is not claimed that any of these acts was, in or of itself, a violation of the Sherman AntiTrust Act. The claim that these acts were unlawful is predicated upon the assumption that the plan, scheme, or conspiracy described in the complaint was a violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. That assumption being baseless, appellant’s claim is untenable.
Since the complaint, as I read it, shows no violation of the Sherman Act, I hold that it fails to state a cause of action.
I am also of the opinion that the complaint is ambiguous and uncertain in the particulars specified in appellees’ demurrer. This is as good a ground of demurrer as the failure to state a cause of actibn. California Code of Civil Procedure, § 430; Goddard v. Metropolitan Trust Co., 9 Cir., 82 F.2d 902.
The judgment should be affirmed.

 See, also, section 4 of tlie Clayton Act, 38 Stat. 731, 15 U.S.O.A. § 15.