Lowe v. Consolidated Edison Co.

1 F.R.D. 559, 1940 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2023
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedNovember 26, 1940
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 1 F.R.D. 559 (Lowe v. Consolidated Edison Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lowe v. Consolidated Edison Co., 1 F.R.D. 559, 1940 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2023 (S.D.N.Y. 1940).

Opinion

LEIBELL, District Judge.

These are motions by defendants, (1) Consolidated Edison Company, Inc., (2) General Electric Company, (3) Artistic Lamps Manufacturing Company, Inc., (4) Proctor Electric Company, (5) R. H. Macy & Co., Inc., and (6) Davega, Inc., pursuant to Rule 10(b) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, 28 U.S.C.A. following section 723c, to compel plaintiffs to state their claims or causes of action in separate counts and, pursuant to Rule 12(e) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, to furnish defendants with specified particulars. Upon the return day of the motions, it was agreed by the parties that they would rest their separate demands for particulars principally upon the application made by defendant, Consolidated Edison Co., Inc., and would indicate upon copies of their own motion papers the items to which they thought they respectively were entitled in addition to those requested by defendant, Consolidated Edison Co., Inc. This has been done and the six motions will be considered as one. Plaintiffs’ counsel have also cooperated in easing the burden of the court in passing upon the numerous requests for particulars, by indicating on defendants’ motion papers the particulars consented to.

Plaintiffs, who are electrical appliance dealers and associations of electrical appliance dealers have instituted this suit, on their own behalf and for the benefit of their members and any other dealers similarly situated, to enjoin defendants from carrying out an asserted conspiracy, which is alleged to be in violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, 15 U.S.C.A. §§ 1-7, 15 note. The gravamen of the complaint is that defendants, who severally are utility operating companies, manufacturers of electrical appliances and retailers of such appliances, have entered into a conspiracy to dump upon the retail market quantities of electrical appliances at prices and upon terms which assertedly do not reflect the true value of the articles and which confront plaintiffs and other individual dealers with conditions of competition that they are unable to meet. A particular example of the conduct complained of (as set forth in paragraph 16 of the amended complaint) is the offer of the defendants, recently well ad[562]*562vertised to the public, to sell in combination at a price of $40.90, a vacuum cleaner, a lamp and an electric iron, the list price of which is $96.90. Assertedly the purpose of this conspiracy is to monopolize the commerce in electrical appliances. In addition, however, the amended complaint also alleges in paragraphs thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth, eighteenth and nineteenth, acts of unfair competition and price discriminations in interstate commerce, which defendants state in effect charge them with violation of the Qayton AntiTrust Act, 38 Stat. 730, and the Robinson Patman Act, 15 U.S.C.A. §§ 13, 13a, 13b, 21a.

It is because of these allegations that defendants have made the motions pursuant to Rule 10(b) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, to compel plaintiffs to state their claims or causes of action in separate counts. Plaintiffs in their brief assert that the allegations in paragraphs thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth, eighteenth and nineteenth were added merely to show the method by which the conspiracy to violate the Sherman Anti-Trust Act is carried out, and that the amended complaint states but one cause of action under that Act. Even if this is not so and plaintiffs eventually obtain relief upon some theory other than that which they say is pleaded in their amended complaint, I do not think that this is a case in which a separation of counts is necessary to the clear presentation of the matters set forth in the amended complaint, or to enable defendants to plead thereto. It may be that an outline of facts, which might constitute claims founded upon the Clayton and the Robinson-Patman Acts, has been set forth in these paragraphs, but defendants can as well answer these claims when stated in separate paragraphs as when stated in separate counts.

The defendants further ask that plaintiffs state in separate counts each of the separate claims of the plaintiffs or any of them founded upon separate alleged acts of the several defendants or any of them in violation of the three separate statutes named above. This in effect would have each separate plaintiff plead in separate counts its alleged separate claims against each separate defendant. The statement of the request makes evident both its unreasonableness and the futility of any attempt to comply with it. It disregards the basic allegations of plaintiffs’ claim — that defendants entered into a combination or conspiracy to restrain unlawfully and to monopolize interstate commerce in the manner and by the means alleged in the amended complaint, as a result of which plaintiffs have been injured in their business, and that to prevent further injury plaintiffs seek an injunction against the defendants. ,

For these reasons the motions made by defendants pursuant to Rule 10(b), F.R.C.P., are denied.

Under Rule 12(e), F.R.C.P., it is provided that a bill of particulars becomes a part of the pleading which it supplements. Accordingly, the particulars “to enable a party to prepare a responsive pleading or to prepare for trial”, are determined with that provision in mind. A contrary view would violate that purpose of the Rules which seeks to obtain short and concise statements of the facts upon which the pleader relies. This does not mean, however, that defendants will be forced to answer general allegations and conclusions, rather than facts, or that the courts will treat the pleadings in all types of actions in the same manner. In cases founded upon the Anti-Trust Act which are dependent for final relief upon the conformation of numerous facts to such flexible concepts as monopoly, interstate commerce, restraint of trade, etc., which are of serious and immediate concern to commercial enterprise, I think that the court should require from plaintiffs in their pleading a statement of facts sufficiently complete to mitigate the dangers that might result if these cases proceeded upon the shaky foundation of a vague and somewhat indefinite complaint. United States v. Griffith Amusement Co., D.C., 1 F.R.D. 229. I am, therefore, inclined to consider liberally defendants’ requests for particulars of plaintiffs’ claim and I have disposed of their motions in the following manner:

Particulars Requested By Consolidated Edison Company, Inc.

Item 1 will be granted. I think that the particulars here requested are directed at the jurisdiction of the court under the Anti-Trust Acts, and the essential facts regarding the injuries suffered by plaintiffs in the course of their business in interstate commerce should be pleaded.

Item 2: Plaintiffs should state whether or not the combination alleged in paragraph sixth of the amended complaint [563]*563is the same as that alleged in paragraph eleventh of the amended complaint. If the answer is in the negative, the particulars should be given as requested. Without these particulars, the conspiracy as alleged in paragraph sixth of the amended complaint is a vague and nebulous thing.

Item 5: Plaintiffs should state generally what portion of the trade in electrical appliances defendants have attempted to restrain or monopolize.

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Bluebook (online)
1 F.R.D. 559, 1940 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2023, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lowe-v-consolidated-edison-co-nysd-1940.