Fleet-Wing Corp. v. Pease Oil Co.

29 Misc. 2d 437, 212 N.Y.S.2d 871, 1961 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 3169
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 24, 1961
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 29 Misc. 2d 437 (Fleet-Wing Corp. v. Pease Oil Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fleet-Wing Corp. v. Pease Oil Co., 29 Misc. 2d 437, 212 N.Y.S.2d 871, 1961 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 3169 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1961).

Opinion

Matthew J. Jasen, J.

This is a motion by plaintiff under rule 109 of the Rules of Civil Practice to strike out certain affirmative defenses contained in the answer of defendants on the ground that it appears on the face of each of the defenses that they are insufficient in law.

From the pleadings it appears that plaintiff and defendant Pease Oil Company entered into certain contractual arrangements whereby the plaintiff sold and delivered to defendant Pease certain gasoline and petroleum products between November 20,1956 and August 29,1960, and there remains unpaid the [438]*438sum of $164,464.82. The pleadings do not include a copy of any contracts nor do they set out the particulars of the contracts, nor is it clear that a written contract was entered into between the parties.

Plaintiff alleges for its second, third, fourth and fifth causes of action that defendants James 0. Porter, Altadale Corporation and Cintra Realty Corporation at certain times during the course of dealings between plaintiff and defendant Pease, executed and delivered to plaintiff guarantees. The guarantees of Cintra and Altadale were secured by mortgages on real property. The substance of each of the guarantees was a promise by each guarantor to pay on demand the full purchase price of the merchandise sold and delivered by plaintiff to Pease. A copy of the guarantee agreement between defendant Porter and plaintiff is attached to the complaint.

Plaintiff alleges demand for payment from defendant Pease and from each of the defendant guarantors, and a refusal on the part of each of the defendants to do so. Judgment in the amount of $164,464.82 and interest is sought, together with foreclosure of the mortgages which secure the various guarantees and the appointment of a receiver of rents and profits of the parcels of real estate mortgaged.

Defendants in their answer make various denials, introduce a series of affirmative defenses and counterclaims.

The first affirmative defense, paragraphs Eleven through Twenty-five in the defendants’ answer, alleges the sale and delivery of certain goods to be contrary to public policy, null, void and unenforeible as a violation of section 1 of the Act of Congress of July 2, 1890 (26 U. S. Stat. 209, as amd.; U. S. Code, tit. 15, § 1) commonly referred to as the Sherman AntiTrust Act; the second affirmative defense, paragraphs Twenty-six and Twenty-seven, alleges violation of section 2 of the same act; the third affirmative defense, paragraphs Twenty-eight and Twenty-nine in the answer alleges violation of the Federal law commonly known as the Clayton Anti-Trust Act (38 U. S. Stat. 731; U. S. Code, tit. 15, § 14); the fourth affirmative defense, paragraphs Thirty through Thirty-four alleges violation of the Federal law commonly known as the Robinson-Patman Price Discrimination Act (49 U. S. Stat. 1526); the fifth affirmative defense, paragraphs Thirty-five and Thirty-six alleges violation of section 340 of the General Business Law, commonly known as the Donnelly Anti-Trust Act; the tenth affirmative defense, paragraph Forty-four, alleges that plaintiff, a foreign corporation, was not qualified to do business in the State of New York; the twelfth affirmative defense, paragraphs Forty-eight and [439]*439Forty-nine, alleges that Altadale Corp. and Cintra Realty Corp. had no authority to execute the guarantees and mortgages.

Plaintiff moves to strike these defenses under rule 109 of the Rules of Civil Practice.

Any decision on the question of the sufficiency of an affirmative defense under rule 109 must naturally he limited to the facts which appear in the pleadings (Commissioners of State Ins. Fund v. Farrand Opt. Co., 295 N. Y. Y. 493). The facts alleged in the defenses attacked must, for the purposes of this motion, be deemed true (Flynn v. New York World-Tel. Corp., 150 Misc. 241; Burns v. Lopez, 256 N. Y. 123).

Neither plaintiff nor defendants have seen fit to include as part of their pleadings a copy of the contract or contracts which the parties allegedly made. Nor has either felt compelled to set out the substance thereof. Thus a defense of illegality of contract might be allowed to stand since this court does not have before it sufficient pleadings to determine whether or not as a matter of law the allegations of illegality are insufficient. However, we need not decide the matter on that ground for a careful reading of the answer of defendants fails to reveal any allegation that the contract as such is illegal. There is, at best, an allegation of unrelated illegal agreements between plaintiff and some of its distributors not party to this action.

Defendants in their brief presented to this court state that “ All distributors of plaintiff’s products including defendant Pease, were required to conspire to fix prices, * * * with respect to plaintiff’s products. ’ ’ However, even the most liberal construction of defendants’ answer fails to convince the court that paragraphs Twenty, Twenty-one, Twenty-two, Twenty-three and Twenty-four of the answer can be so construed as to charge plaintiff, defendant Pease, or for that matter any other person, with complicity in an expressed conspiracy as part of the contract in issue, to violate any of the various antitrust acts.

A clear distinction must be made between contracts which embody in their essential terms a conspiracy to violate the antitrust acts and contracts, the essentials of which are legal but which may incidentally involve antitrust violations which are collateral to the contract.

An affirmative defense charging violation of the antitrust laws must be struck down upon motion to dismiss unless the contract for the sale of goods is alleged to be an integral part of the illegal conspiracy. The contract must in itself carry out the terms of the illegality and be part and parcel of the violations to allow the defense to stand. This is made abundantly [440]*440clear by the United States Supreme Court in deciding the recent case of Kelly v. Kosuga (358 U .S. 516 [1959]) which is controlling in the instant case. (Fleischmann Distilling Corp. v. Frontier Liq. Corp., 18 Misc 2d 903; Jamaica Sash & Door v. Prudential Improvement Serv., 137 N. Y. S. 2d 593; Bruce’s Juices v. American Can Co., 330 U. S. 743, 755.)

The next defense of violating the Clayton Anti-Trust Act must be struck down on the same grounds as the first two defenses above since the Sherman Act and the Clayton Act must be considered part of the same comprehensive scheme of legislation, the Clayton Act being enacted to further implement the Sherman Act. We cite as authority National Nut Co. of California v. Kelling Nut Co. (61 F. Supp. 76 [1945]).

Defendants’ fourth affirmative defense charges violation of section 1 of the Act of Congress of June 19, 1936 (49 U. S. Stat. 1526; U. S. Code, tit. 15, § 13) commonly known as the RobinsonPatman Price Discrimination Act. The substance of this defense charges plaintiff with willful and deliberate price discrimination against defendant Pease in violation of the act. Such defense is not available to the defendants in the present action and redress must be sought for the alleged damage in accordance with the terms of the Robinson-Patman Act. In Bruce’s Juices v. American Can Co. (supra)

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29 Misc. 2d 437, 212 N.Y.S.2d 871, 1961 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 3169, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fleet-wing-corp-v-pease-oil-co-nysupct-1961.