Carlson MacHine Tools, Inc. v. American Tool, Inc., Subsidiary of Fischer Industries, Inc., Fischer Industries, Inc. And John D. Hendrick

678 F.2d 1253, 1982 U.S. App. LEXIS 18041
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedJune 23, 1982
Docket81-2462
StatusPublished
Cited by23 cases

This text of 678 F.2d 1253 (Carlson MacHine Tools, Inc. v. American Tool, Inc., Subsidiary of Fischer Industries, Inc., Fischer Industries, Inc. And John D. Hendrick) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Carlson MacHine Tools, Inc. v. American Tool, Inc., Subsidiary of Fischer Industries, Inc., Fischer Industries, Inc. And John D. Hendrick, 678 F.2d 1253, 1982 U.S. App. LEXIS 18041 (5th Cir. 1982).

Opinion

TATE, Circuit Judge:

Carlson Machine Tools, Inc. (“Carlson”), a distributor of machine tool lathes, sued American Tool, Inc. (“American”), a manufacturer of machine tool lathes, claiming that American violated the antitrust laws through a boycott, resale price maintenance, and unreasonable territorial distribution restrictions. Carlson also claimed that American breached its distribution contract and various purchase agreements with Carlson, and that an American corporate officer tortiously interfered with Carlson’s business relationships. The district court, 523 F.Supp. 1349, granted summary judgment in favor of American on all counts. Carlson appeals, contending that it raised material issues of fact on each claim, and that the trial court erred in granting summary judgment. We agree with Carlson that the trial court erred in granting summary judgment on Carlson’s claim concerning breach of the distributorship agreement and breach of one purchase agreement. However, we affirm the summary judgment on all remaining counts.

I. Facts

This case involves an appeal by Carlson from a grant of summary judgment in favor of American. Facts asserted by Carlson “ ‘if supported by affidavits or other evi-dentiary material, are regarded as true.’ ” Coke v. General Adjustment Bureau, Inc., 640 F.2d 584, 595 (5th Cir. 1981) (quoting Wright & Miller, Federal Practice and Procedure: Civil § 2727 at 530 (1973)).

American manufactures machine tool lathes, and under the distribution system used during the time relevant to this appeal, marketed its lathes through independent distributors who received exclusive territories to sell American lathes. Ameri *1257 can furnished suggested retail price lists to its distributors, who quoted specifications and prices to customers. After a purchase order was placed with the distributor, and approved by American, American invoiced the distributor who resold the lathes to the customer.

Carlson began as an American distributor in 1962. Its exclusive territory consisted of south Texas, exclusive of Travis and Williamson counties. Carlson requested American to include Travis and Williamson counties in its territory, but American refused, citing Carlson’s lack of sales personnel to serve the area for which it was responsible.

In 1979, American and Carlson entered into a new distributorship agreement, which had a duration of one year and was thereafter automatically renewable from year to year. Either party could terminate the agreement during its first year for “just cause” on thirty days’ prior written notice (no cause was required for termination thereafter), and American had the right to act as “sole judge” in determining if Carlson’s performance warranted continued affiliation. American claims that it entered into an identical agreement (save for differences in territory) with all of its distributors “as part of an effort to update existing contracts.” American br. at 3. Carlson’s new contract was sent to Carlson in April 1979 and was dated April 15, 1979. Carlson did not sign and return the contract to American until mid-May 1979.

American notified Carlson by a letter dated June 1, 1979, that Carlson’s distributorship was terminated as of that date, and Carlson argues that American did not provide Carlson with the required thirty-days’ notice. 1 American claimed that it terminated Carlson for breaching its distributorship agreement in that: (1) Carlson refused to maintain enough sales personnel to serve its area; (2) a Carlson salesman abused a potential customer by leaving a sales meeting; (3) Carlson canceled a stocking order for American “Eagle” lathes; and (4) Carlson maintained a poor sales record in relation to the industry sales averages in the Texas market.

American replaced Carlson with Selby-Horan, a competitor of Carlson’s whose supplying manufacturer decided to enter the south Texas market directly. According to Carlson, American’s negotiations with Sel-by-Horan commenced about the same time that American was encouraging Carlson to sign the new distributorship agreement that American sent to it in April 1979.

Carlson claimed that the reasons given by American for its cancellation were pretex-tual, and it brought suit against American claiming damages caused by American’s alleged violation of federal antitrust laws, 2 breach of contract with Carlson, and tor-tious interference with Carlson’s business relationships. After extensive discovery, American moved for summary judgment on all counts, and the district court granted the motion. 3

II. Issues

On appeal, Carlson argues that the trial court erred in finding that no genuine fact issues existed with respect to Carlson’s *1258 claims that: (1) American and Selby-Horan engaged in an illegal boycott of Carlson; (2) American engaged in resale price maintenance; (3) American engaged in unreasonable market division through its distribution system; (4) American breached its agreement by termination with Carlson in bad faith and with fraud; (5) American breached its purchase agreement with Carlson concerning its sale to Carlson of American “Eagle” lathes; and (6) an American employee had tortiously interfered with Carlson’s business relationships by terminating Carlson for personal reasons. Carlson also urges that a different standard for determining the propriety of summary judgment is applicable in antitrust cases. We will consider each of these contentions in turn.

III. Prelude: An Antitrust Summary Judgment Standard?

In addition to its specific arguments concerning why summary judgment was inappropriate to resolve its various claims, Carlson contends that as a general matter, summary judgment is “not appropriate where motive and intent” questions are involved. Carlson br. at 21. Carlson relies on White Motor Company v. United States, 372 U.S. 253, 259, 83 S.Ct. 696, 700, 9 L.Ed.2d 738 (1963) and Poller v. Columbia Broadcasting System, 368 U.S. 464, 473, 82 S.Ct. 486, 491, 7 L.Ed.2d 458 (1962).

Although White and Poller certainly do warn against the use of summary judgment where motive and intent issues are involved, this should not be understood as holding antitrust cases to be inherently incapable of resolution by summary judgment. In First National Bank of Arizona v. Cities Service Co., 391 U.S. 253, 88 S.Ct. 1575, 20 L.Ed.2d 569 (1968), the Supreme Court explicitly declined to eliminate summary judgment in antitrust cases:

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678 F.2d 1253, 1982 U.S. App. LEXIS 18041, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/carlson-machine-tools-inc-v-american-tool-inc-subsidiary-of-fischer-ca5-1982.