Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District v. Louisiana-Pacific Corp.

608 F. Supp. 562, 1985 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 19902
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. California
DecidedMay 10, 1985
DocketC-83-5637 SC
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 608 F. Supp. 562 (Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District v. Louisiana-Pacific Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District v. Louisiana-Pacific Corp., 608 F. Supp. 562, 1985 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 19902 (N.D. Cal. 1985).

Opinion

ORDER GRANTING DEFENDANTS’ MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT AND DISMISSING PENDENT CLAIMS

CONTI, District Judge.

Plaintiff Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District (“the District”) brings this action *564 against defendant Louisiana-Pacific Corporation (“L-P”) and the other defendants, collectively referred to as “Simpson,” on two federal and three pendent state claims, alleging, inter alia, antitrust violations on the part of L-P and Simpson. The five claims are denominated by plaintiff as follows: 1) “Sherman Act Section 1;” 2) “Sherman Act Section 2;” 3) “Cartwright Act;” 4) “Reformation Due to Economic Impracticability and Frustration of Purpose;” and 5) “Gift of Public Funds.” This matter is currently before the court on defendants’ motion for summary judgment and plaintiff’s motion for partial summary judgment. The court’s thorough survey of the voluminous record of evidentiary exhibits reveals the following factual background to this case.

FACTUAL BACKGROUND

The District was formed in 1956 with the purpose of servicing water to one or more potential pulp mills in Humboldt County. The voters authorized the District to issue $12 million in bonds to be secured by ad valorem property taxes. The District put together a plan to build a dam and diversion project capable of supplying Humboldt County with 75 to 125 million gallons of water a day, the bulk of which would be available for industrial use.

In the spring of 1959, the District began serious negotiations with Georgia-Pacific (“G-P”), the predecessor corporation to L-P, and made a rate proposal for a long-term water supply contract. G-P accepted the rate proposal in writing. Sometime later, Simpson agreed to the same rate proposal that G-P had accepted. Once G-P and Simpson agreed to the rate proposal, the District drafted identical contracts incorporating its proposed rate structure and the 40-year contractual term now complained of by plaintiff, and circulated identical drafts to the negotiators for the mills. G-P and Simpson executed the identical water contracts in September, 1959. Since 1959, the contracts have been identically amended several times.

From the outset, the District insisted that the contracts with each of the mills be identical. It was the District’s position that identical contracts and amendments were mandated under California law. The District has continually attempted to have all negotiations concerning the contracts and amendments conducted jointly with all three parties.

As planned, a few months after signing the 1959 contracts, the District issued 40-year municipal bonds secured by its property taxing power. In calculating the rates charged L-P and Simpson, the District hoped to minimize the tax burden on property owners. The identical 1959 contracts, however, imposed no obligation on either side regarding taxes. The District did not impose taxes from 1966, when defendants’ pulp mills began operation, until 1976, when the District received an adverse IRS ruling.

The 1959 contracts obligated the District to sell and defendants to purchase a minimum quantity of water, subject to availability, at a price set in the contracts. A sliding scale was set for water sold in excess of the minimum quantities. The prices were subject to adjustment to reflect any differences between estimated and actual costs of construction of the District’s facilities and, in fact, the stated prices were increased by 20 percent. In addition, 15 percent of defendants’ payments was subject to further annual adjustments based on changes in the index of wholesale prices. By its terms, the 1959 contracts were to expire on December 31, 1999.

On February 23, 1966, defendants and the District entered into amendments to the contracts for supplemental water volumes. The amendments provided for a sale of additional water, reducible at the District’s discretion to supply other customers. The 1966 amended contracts contemplated that the District would construct additional facilities and they related payments for the additional water to be provided to the District’s actual or estimated costs for the additional facilities. In order to accomplish this, the amendments estab *565 lished a “Contract Price,” to be calculated each year, which was to be the sum of four “Price Factors.”

On January 28, 1975, defendants and the District entered into further amendments to the contracts after it became apparent that existing facilities were incapable of providing the amount of water desired. The 1975 amended contracts provided for modifications in the facilities together with an adjustment of prices for water.

For nearly 18 years all the parties operated under and relied on the contracts and their amendments, and nobody challenged their validity in whole or in part. However, on April 14, 1977, the board of directors of the District passed a resolution directing the general manager to prepare an ordinance embodying a new rate schedule applicable to all the District’s customers. The resolution was based on the opinion of the board that existing contract provisions that established the price of water to customers constituted an invalid limitation on the power of the board to set rates. On this basis, the board declared that it did not consider itself bound by the rate provisions of any of its industrial or municipal contracts. Pursuant to this resolution, Ordinance No. 10 was passed by the board on July 14, 1977. Ordinance No. 10 established a new rate structure which purported to supercede only those portions of preexisting contracts with the District’s industrial and municipal customers which establish rates and charges for water.

Litigation over the validity of Ordinance No. 10 ensued, and on November 2, 1982, the California Court of Appeal rendered a decision which invalidated Ordinance No. 10 and upheld the validity of Simpson’s and L-P’s contracts with the District. See Louisiana-Pacific Corp. v. Humboldt Bay Mun. Water Dist, 137 Cal.App.3d 152, 162, 186 Cal.Rptr. 833 (1982) (The District entered into the contracts “in order to bind [defendants] to a firm obligation to purchase a specified amount of water and thereby obtained for itself the benefit of a long-term guarantee of patronage. [The] District is bound to the obligation to which it agreed in order to obtain that guarantee.”).

In April 1983, on remand to the Superior Court, the District moved to amend its answer and file a cross-complaint to assert for the first time that defendants’ conduct regarding the 1959 contracts and the following amendments resulted from a conspiracy to fix prices and restrain trade in violation of California’s Cartwright Act. The Superior Court granted the motion but the California Court of Appeal issued a writ of mandate and supporting opinion directing that the amended answer and cross-complaint be stricken.

The District now raises similar antitrust allegations in this federal action under the Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1 & 2, and the Cartwright Act as raised in the state action solely under the Cartwright Act, along with its pendent state claims.

DEFENDANTS’ MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT

Defendants’ move for summary judgment on various grounds as to the District’s federal antitrust claims and pendent state claims.

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Bluebook (online)
608 F. Supp. 562, 1985 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 19902, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/humboldt-bay-municipal-water-district-v-louisiana-pacific-corp-cand-1985.