Court Opinion

ID: 9472314
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 03:56:20.915187+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:42:51.809998
License: Public Domain

SWYGERT, Senior Circuit Judge,
concurring in the judgment.
Walters raises four issues on appeal: (1) whether Morton’s trademark was illegally tied to the sale of its building material packages; (2) whether Morton forced Walters to maintain illegally fixed retail prices on periodically advertised specials; (3) whether Walters states a claim under section 1 of the Sherman Act for Morton’s alleged predatory scheme to destroy its independent dealers; and (4) whether Morton owed Walters a duty of good faith. I agree with the majority that the district court’s disposition of these four issues should be affirmed, although I will address only the first two.
In regard to the tie-in claim, the record can admit of only one conclusion: there was no tie-in because there were not two separate products, see Fortner Enterprises, Inc. v. United States Steel Corp., 394 U.S. 495, 507, 89 S.Ct. 1252, 1260, 22 L.Ed.2d 495 (1969). Under any of the analyses adopted by the courts, the Morton trademark did not constitute a product separate from the Morton building material package. See, e.g., Jefferson Parish Hospital District No. 2 v. Hyde, — U.S.-, 104 S.Ct. 1551, 1562-63, 80 L.Ed.2d 2 (1984) (separate products exist where there are separate markets for each product); Principe v. McDonald’s Corp., 631 F.2d 303, 309 (4th Cir.1980), cert. denied, 451 U.S. 970, 101 S.Ct. 2047, 68 L.Ed.2d 349 (1981) (franchise package constitutes single product where the “aggregation is an essential ingredient of the franchised system’s formula for success”); Siegel v. Chicken Delight, Inc., 448 F.2d 43, 48-49 (9th Cir. 1971), cert. denied, 405 U.S. 955, 92 S.Ct. 1172, 31 L.Ed.2d 232 (1972) (trademark used under “business format system” or “rent a name” franchise constitutes separate product from articles used in production of system but trademark used under a “distribution format system” is integrated with the product or products that it represents).
Walters’.retail price maintenance claim is hardly worth discussion. Morton legally could advertise its products for direct sales to consumers at any price it wished. Walters admitted that he was faced with the choice of meeting the price advertised by Morton or making no sales. Thus, any actions by Morton to enforce sales at the advertised price were unnecessary and could not have caused Walters a compensa-ble antitrust injury. See Brunswick Corp. v. Pueblo Bowl-O-Mat, Inc., 429 U.S. 477, 487-89, 97 S.Ct. 690, 696-697, 50 L.Ed.2d 701 (1977).
Unfortunately, I cannot concur in much of the discussion contained in the majority opinion, not because that discussion may not state correct principles of law, but because I believe it is dicta — dicta that might tend to influence and prejudice decisions in cases yet unborn but which may come to this court for review. It could be argued that the discussion of matters other than those actually raised by this appeal has a certain peripheral relevance, but such relevance, if it exists at all, is unnecessary for an understanding and treatment of this case. It is axiomatic, of course, that we *714should confine our discussion to the legal principles applicable to the case at hand. Shadows cast beyond the facts of a particular case tend to confuse the trial judges and haunt our own appellate court—inhibiting our freedom to decide future cases according to what we perceive to be the applicable law at that time.