Mustang Beverage Co., Inc. v. Jos. Schlitz Brewing Co.

511 P.2d 1, 162 Mont. 243
CourtMontana Supreme Court
DecidedJune 27, 1973
Docket12323
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 511 P.2d 1 (Mustang Beverage Co., Inc. v. Jos. Schlitz Brewing Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Montana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mustang Beverage Co., Inc. v. Jos. Schlitz Brewing Co., 511 P.2d 1, 162 Mont. 243 (Mo. 1973).

Opinions

MR. CHIEF JUSTICE JAMES T. HARRISON

delivered the Opinion of the Court.

This is an appeal from an order of the district court of the thirteenth judicial district, Yellowstone County, granting summary judgment to defendants.

Plaintiff Mustang Beverage Company, Inc., hereinafter called Mustang, brought this action to recover damages from defendant Jos. Schlitz Brewing Company, hereinafter called Schlitz, resulting from the breach of, and interference with, certain alleged contractual arrangements for the distribution of brewery products manufactured by defendant Schlitz. Defendant Brad Brown was the district representative for Schlitz in the Billings area.

Plaintiff Mustang contended the remaining defendants intended to create a monopoly in the beer business in Billings. Atlas Beverages, Inc., Fred L. Briggs Distributing Company, Inc., Ace Beverage Company and Allied Distributors, Inc., were corporations holding wholesale beer licenses from the state of Montana. Peter Decker and Fred L. Briggs were two of the three officers of the Fred L. Briggs Distributing Company, Inc-, and Mustang alleged these two defendants were also officers in the Atlas Beverages, Inc. Decker, Briggs and one Carl Kemble were with the Ace Beverage Company of Miles City, Montana, and are alleged to have conspired to form Walt’s Beverages, Inc.

Mustang was a duly licensed wholesale beer distributor in the state of Montana, through a permit and license issued by the Montana State Liquor Control Board. From 1958 until July 10, 1970, Mustang was the only wholesale beer distributor who distributed Schlitz products in Yellowstone, Big Horn, Carbon, Golden Valley, Musselshell and Stillwater Counties. The distribution area also included the town of Shawmut in Wheatland County.

[246]*246On June 4, 1958, Mustang and Schlitz entered into a written agreement entitled “Declaration of Terms” whereunder a buyer-seller relationship was established between Schlitz as brewery seller, and Mustang as wholesale buyer. The agreement carefully set out that the relationship between the parties was exclusively that of buyer and seller. The agreement could be terminated by either party at any time without cause or notice, and the buyer acknowledged that the seller had granted no franchise or exclusive territory to the buyer. Additionally, each time Mustang bought beer from Schlitz, f. o. b. Wisconsin, it ordered on a form provided by Schlitz which included the provisions from the “Declaration of Terms” as a condition of sale.

Relations between Mustang and certain personnel of Schlitz became strained. Schlitz unilaterally canceled the relationship with Mustang in a letter to it on July 10, 1970. This suit arose out of the canceled contractual relationship.

The first and essential issue on appeal is whether or not the district court erred in granting summary judgments against Mustang Beverage Company, Inc.

This Court on a number of occasions has considered the propriety of granting or denying motions for summary judgment-Rule 56(c), M.R.Civ.P., required that summary judgment be granted if:

it* * * the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law. * * *”

The burden of establishing the absence of any issue of material fact is on the party seeking summary judgment. In Roope v. Anaconda Company, 159 Mont. 28, 494 P.2d 922, 924, this Court held:

“But where, as here, the record discloses no genuine issue as to any material fact, the burden is upon the party opposing the motion to present evidence of a material and substantial nature raising a genuine issue, of fact.”

[247]*247Again in Calkins v. Oxbow Ranch, Inc., 159 Mont. 120, 495 P.2d 1124, 1125, the Court stated:

“In discussing a motion for summary judgment in Gallatin Tr. & Sav. Bk. v. Henke, 154 Mont. 170, 172, 461 P.2d 448, 449, this Court citing from Silloway v. Jorgenson, 146 Mont. 307, 406 P.2d 167, said:

“ * * the party opposing motion [for summary judgment] must present facts in proper form — conclusions of law will not suffice; and the opposing party’s facts must be material and of a substantial nature, not fanciful, frivolous, gauzy, nor merely suspicions.’ 6 Moore’s Federal Practice 2d. § 56.15[3], pp. 2346, 2347; Hagar v. Tandy, 146 Mont. 531, 410 P.2d 447.”

See also, Hannifin v. Butte Retail Clerks Union Number 4, 162 Mont. 170, 511 P.2d 982.

From the record Mustang’s complaint does not provide any genuine issue as to any material fact and defendants were properly granted summary judgments as a matter of law.

The second issue on appeal is whether or not the district eourt erred in entering summary judgments for defendants, when the depositions of eight of the nine parties involved in this action, while before the court, had not been filed, and when the district court had no independent recollection of having examined the depositions nor of having such depositions in its possession. Counsel for all parties made extensive reference to the depositions and exhibits in their briefs in the district court, and duplicate originals of the eight depositions have now been certified by the court reporter and filed with the clerk of the district court. The original depositions and exhibits could properly be considered in support of the summary judgments even if the duplicate originals had not been filed. Failure of the eourt reporter to file the first originals in accordance with Rule 30(f), M.R.Civ.P., was at most harmless error. No motion to suppress the use of the depositions was ever made by counsel for Mustang, even though Mustang had ample time and opportunity to discover the depositions had not been filed. Also, three of the “missing” depositions were those of Mustang’s own offi[248]*248cers. This Court finds the “missing” depositions in no way affect the district court’s ruling in regard to the summary judgments.

We present the following points as they were presented in district court, as this was the basis upon which the district court granted the summary judgments.

Under the first claim of the complaint there was no unlawful conspiracy by Schlitz with any other defendant. The controlling point on this claim is that the contract between Schlitz and Mustang specifically and clearly provided in Paragraph 5:

“* * * Buyer acknowledges that Seller has granted no franchise or exclusive territory to Buyer, and Seller may, at any time. without incurring any liability to Buyer, sell its products to others in the same trade area as Buyer. * * *”

This fully signed contract is dated May 2, 1958, and was in full force and effect until July 10, 1970, when Schlitz notified Mustang that Schlitz would no longer sell beer to Mustang-The order forms for beer as the beverage was ordered by Mustang from Schlitz also supports this position.

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Mustang Beverage Co., Inc. v. Jos. Schlitz Brewing Co.
511 P.2d 1 (Montana Supreme Court, 1973)

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Bluebook (online)
511 P.2d 1, 162 Mont. 243, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mustang-beverage-co-inc-v-jos-schlitz-brewing-co-mont-1973.