Alexander v. National Farmers Organization

637 F. Supp. 1487, 1986 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 24079
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Missouri
DecidedJune 17, 1986
Docket19191-A-1
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 637 F. Supp. 1487 (Alexander v. National Farmers Organization) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Alexander v. National Farmers Organization, 637 F. Supp. 1487, 1986 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 24079 (W.D. Mo. 1986).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDERS DIRECTING FURTHER PROCEEDINGS

JOHN W. OLIVER, Senior District Judge.

I.

On August 9, 1985 this Court entered an agreed order which established the time schedule under which the following matters would be submitted for this Court’s consideration: (1) NFO’s attorneys’ fee petition, (2) NFO’s Rule 37 motion, (3) AMPI’s Rule 37 motion, 1 and (4) NFO’s bill of costs. By agreement of the parties, the deadline for the last filing to be made under that order was extended to February 10, 1986. On August 27, 1985 NFO filed a motion for clarification of this Court's ruling denying an award of damages. That motion has been fully briefed on a separate schedule and will be ruled. 2

NFO's motion for clarification will be denied. Both NFO’s Rule 37 motion and AMPI’s motion for sanctions will be granted. Both NFO’s attorneys’ fee petition and its separate bill of costs motion will be denied without prejudice.

II.

Consistent with the Supreme Court’s admonition to avoid a second major litigation stated in Hensley v. Eckerhart, 461 U.S. 424, 437, 103 S.Ct. 1933, 1941, 76 L.Ed.2d 40 (1983), the August 9, 1985 order provided that the parties would conduct appropriate conferences during the month of September, 1985, for the purpose of reaching an agreement in regard to the amounts to be awarded in regard to four matters covered by that order. On September 27, 1985, counsel reported that they had conferred on September 18,19, and 20, 1985 in Washington, D.C. as directed in the August 9, 1985 order and that they had been able *1489 to agree that if current Kansas City rates are to be applied, the reasonable current Kansas City rates would be $110/hr. for partner level work, $70/hr. for associate level work, and $30/hr. for paralegal and law clerk level work. Counsel were, of course, in disagreement as to whether Kansas City or Washington, D.C. rates should apply and whether any award should be based on current or historic rates.

The September 27, 1985 report stated that counsel were unable to agree on any of the major issues posed by NFO’s cost petition and the NFO and AMPI Rule 37 motions. Counsel stated, however, that “some progress” had been made on the issues presented in regard to NFO’s fee claim. It is clear, however, that the only agreement reached during three days of conference was an agreement as to the current Kansas City hourly rates.

Counsel did not seek any assistance from the Court after the breakdown of those conferences. The Court, of course, did not volunteer assistance, absent such a request. If we had then been familiar with the admonition the Court added in Blum v. Stenson, 465 U.S. 886, 902 n. 19, 104 S.Ct. 1541, 1550 n. 19, 79 L.Ed.2d 891 (1984), to the earlier admonition of Hensley v. Eckerhart, supra, 461 U.S. at 437, 103 S.Ct. at 1941, to avoid a second major litigation, we might have directed counsel to engage in further negotiations. For the Court stated in Blum that a district “court, with its intimate knowledge of the litigation, has a responsibility to encourage agreement.”

We frankly doubt whether further negotiations would have been any more successful than those already conducted pursuant to the August 9, 1985 order. For the September 27, 1985 report of those negotiations and the briefs and documents filed since the failure of the settlement conference make it clear that the parties have mutually decided, contrary to Hensley’s admonition, to embark on a second major litigation. 3

Our memorandum opinion on remand, reported in 614 F.Supp. 745 (W.D.Mo.1985), shows that NFO’s Rule 37 motion for monetary sanctions was presented on remand as Issue No. 2; AMPI’s motion against NFO for sanctions was presented on remand as Issue No. 3; and that NFO’s motion for costs was presented on remand as Issue No. 8.

The orders entered in regard to all three of those issues were consistent with this Court’s acceptance of counsels’ representations that they were in full agreement with the Hensley second major litigation admonition and that the parties, if given some guidelines, would be able to reach an agreement in regard to all three of those issues. 4

It is now painfully obvious that the Court was overly optimistic in assuming that the parties would be able to negotiate a settlement of even the relatively uncomplicated questions presented in regard to Issues 2, *1490 3, and 8. For despite continued and frequent assertions that each side wants to avoid a second major litigation, it is crystal clear that the parties have tacitly agreed to follow exactly that course. 5

The history of how Alexander has been bitterly litigated and the history of how the thirty other antitrust cases in In re Midwest Milk Monopolization Litigation, Multidistrict Docket No. 83, were long ago terminated establishes the sharp contrast between the inability of counsel in Alexander to reach agreement on even minor questions and the ability of counsel in the thirty other antitrust cases to reach complete agreement in regard to how all those cases were to be terminated.

The six opinions of the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation in In re Midwest Milk Monopolization Litigation 6 show that the Panel transferred 28 separate private antitrust actions to this Court for coordinated pretrial proceedings pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1407. 7 In addition to the 28 private antitrust actions transferred pursuant to Section 1407, this Court accepted transfer pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1404, of the government’s civil antitrust action originally filed against AMPI in the Northern District of Texas. That government case, and the government’s civil action against Mid-Am, filed in this district was also processed in this Court under coordinated pretrial procedures. Both cases were long ago terminated by this Court’s approval of consent decrees. 8

The files and records of this Court and the docket sheets of the Panel establish that all of the 30 antitrust cases in which coordinated, as distinguished from consolidated, pretrial discovery was conducted, excepting only two cases transferred from the Northern District of Illinois, were disposed of by the agreement of the parties and without the conduct of any major litigation. 9

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Bluebook (online)
637 F. Supp. 1487, 1986 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 24079, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/alexander-v-national-farmers-organization-mowd-1986.