Alexander v. National Farmers' Organization

645 F. Supp. 1146, 55 U.S.L.W. 2274, 1986 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20345
Procedural entryThis page is a short order in Alexander v. National Farmers' Organization. Read the opinion of the Court — 614 F. Supp. 745
District Court, W.D. Missouri·Decided September 16, 1986·No. No. 19191-A-1·Published

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER DIRECTING ENTRY OF FINAL JUDGMENT AND DECREE

JOHN W. OLIVER, Senior District Judge.

I.

Order (5) entered June 17, 1986 directed counsel to promptly schedule a conference for the purpose of agreeing on the forms of final judgments that should be entered on remand in order that appropriate and immediate appeals could be noticed in regard to any of the orders entered on July 5,1985 and on June 17, 1986. See 637 F.Supp. 1487 at 1516-17. That order provided that if counsel were able to reach agreement, their proposed forms of final judgment should be presented to the Court for approval on or before June 30, 1986.

Order (5) also provided that: “In the event counsel are not able to reach full agreement, each party shall separately prepare, serve, and file their proposed forms of final judgment and their respective proposed orders together with a short statement in support of their respective positions, on or before June 30, 1986.” Counsel requested and the Court granted an extension of the June 30, 1986 deadline until August 4, 1986.

The Court received separate letters dated August 4, 1986 from opposing counsel, both of which advised that counsel had not been able to reach agreement. Both letters enclosed separate proposed forms of a final judgment and forms of an injunction. Neither side, however, filed “a short statement in support of their respective positions,” as directed in Order (5).

Statements in support were eventually filed pursuant to an agreed time schedule, the last filing being received on September 5, 1986. We have given priority attention to the filings of the parties, consistent with our earlier scheduled commitments to other cases on the docket, and will direct the Clerk to enter a final judgment and decree pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 58.

II.

The parties’ disagreement centered on the form of the injunction rather than on the form of the final judgment. NFO's August 4,1986 letter accurately stated that there were “substantial and substantive differences between the two sides” only in regard to “the extent and character of the injunction that the Court should enter on the sham litigation point.” That letter pointed out that in regard to the final judgment, as distinguished from the injunction, the differences between- the parties were “essentially questions of appropriate form” and that “[f]ive out of NFO’s six proposed provisions essentially parallel provisions proposed by the counterclaim defendants.”

Both sides proposed particular paragraphs to be included in the final judgment that would, in effect, paraphrase findings of fact and conclusions of law made both by the Court of Appeals and by this Court. It is not necessary that the Court include the paragraphs proposed by the parties because the Court of Appeals’ opinion speaks for itself, and because we have expressly incorporated by reference in the final judgment and decree all findings of fact and conclusions of law that have been made by this Court following remand.

The final judgment includes the substance of all six paragraphs proposed for inclusion by NFO and the substance of all fourteen paragraphs proposed by counterclaim defendants, excepting only paragraphs 2, 3, 5, 6, and 7, all of which paraphrase portions of what this Court has heretofore stated of record.

We turn now to the form of injunction about which the parties are in substantial dispute.

[1148]*1148III.

“Issue No. 7 — Injunctive Relief” presented the question on remand of what, if any, injunctive relief NFO may be entitled to under the circumstances of this case. 614 F.Supp. 745 at 799. The form of the proposed injunction attached to NFO’s October 11, 1983 post-remand motion for injunctive relief was in substantially different form than the form of NFO’s presently proposed injunction forwarded in NFO’s August 4, 1986 letter.

For reasons stated in detail in regard to “Issue No. 7 — Injunctive Relief,” see 614 F.Supp. 799 to 808, we rejected the form of the injunction proposed by NFO in its October 11,1983 motion and entered the following orders:

ORDERED (1) that NFO is entitled to an injunction which will specifically prohibit the initiation or maintenance of sham litigation and threats of litigation against potential buyers of NFO milk. It is further
ORDERED (2) that NFO is not entitled to any further equitable relief other than that stated in Order (1) under the factual circumstances and applicable principles of equity. It is further
ORDERED (3) that appropriate further proceedings will later be directed in regard to how the form of injunction shall be settled.

Id. at 808.

Those orders were entered in light of our detailed discussion of the scope of the injunction to which we concluded NFO was entitled under the Court of Appeals’ decision. Order (3), of course, expressed our confidence that counsel would be able to agree on the form of the limited injunction that would be granted. Because that expectation has not been realized, it is necessary that we discuss NFO’s post-remand position in regard to injunctive relief in some detail.

IV.

NFO’s October 11, 1983 proposed form of injunction was eleven pages long. Paragraph 11(1) and Paragraph II(2)(a) of that proposed injunction were the only paragraphs proposed by NFO to prohibit sham litigation.1 NFO did not mention Paragraph II(2)(a) in its October 11, 1983 brief in support of the form of injunction it proposed immediately after remand. NFO’s brief recognized, however, that Paragraph 11(1) was “likely to be truly controversial” for the reason such a provision “may be said to curtail First Amendment rights that defendants would otherwise possess.” (NFO’s October 11, 1983 brief, p. 8). NFO directed attention to National Society of Professional Engineers v. United States, 435 U.S. 679, 98 S.Ct. 1355, 55 L.Ed.2d 637 (1978), to support the language it proposed in Paragraph 11(1), stating that “all three defendants overtly engaged in unlawful sham litigation or threats of litigation.”2 Id. (Emphasis added).

The difficulty with NFO’s Paragraph 11(1) and Paragraph II(2)(a) as originally proposed in 1983 and with the provisions proposed in Paragraph II of its currently proposed form of injunction is that none of those proposed paragraphs so much as mention sham litigation. It was for that reason that we stated in our July 5, 1985 memorandum opinion that while an injunction against “sham litigation” would be en[1149]*1149tered “in the form as generally stated in paragraphs 11(1) and II(2)(a) of [NFO’s] proposed injunction,” such an injunction would be worded in “much more direct language” to make clear that the “injunction ... to be granted shall be limited to a prohibition against the institution of threatened sham litigation.” 614 F.Supp. at 802. (Emphasis added).

We believed then and we believe now that the injunction should include specific language that states that the prohibition is directed against sham litigation.

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Alexander v. National Farmers' Organization, 645 F. Supp. 1146, 55 U.S.L.W. 2274, 1986 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20345 (W.D. Mo. 1986).

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