Periodical Distributors, Inc. v. American News Co.

290 F. Supp. 896, 1968 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12229, 1968 Trade Cas. (CCH) 72,662
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedOctober 15, 1968
Docket60 Civ. 3504
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 290 F. Supp. 896 (Periodical Distributors, Inc. v. American News 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
Periodical Distributors, Inc. v. American News Co., 290 F. Supp. 896, 1968 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12229, 1968 Trade Cas. (CCH) 72,662 (S.D.N.Y. 1968).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM

GRAVEN, District Judge.

1. In this action the plaintiff seeks to recover damages and to secure injunctive relief because of the claimed violations by the defendants of Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C.A. Secs. 1 & 2, in connection with the distribution of periodicals in the New York Metropolitan area. The Greater Boston Distributors, Inc., was originally a defendant. The action was dismissed as to it for lack of jurisdiction. The trial was to the Court. For convenience, the words “The” and “Inc.” will be omitted from the names of the corporate defendants.

The particular area of the New York Metropolitan area involved consists of the Boroughs of Manhattan, Bronx, Queens, and Kings of New York City and Nassau and Suffolk Counties. In the testimony of the witnesses and in the exhibits and in the briefs of the attorneys the Borough of Manhattan is interchangeably referred to as New York County or Manhattan; the Borough of Queens is interchangeably referred to as Queens County or Queens; the Borough of Kings is interchangeably referred to as Kings County or Brooklyn. The area lying to the east of Queens is referred to as Long Island. The periodicals involved consisted in the main of magazines and pocket books. There is not involved the distribution of newspapers.

2. The plaintiff was and is a local wholesale distributor of periodicals in the New York Metropolitan area. Its original corporate name was Periodical Distributors of Greater New York. It commenced this action on September 8, 1960. In its complaint it set forth three causes of action. In its first cause of action it alleged that the defendants had conspired and continued to conspire to deny it access in general to the retail newsstands operated by the defendant Union News Company. In its second cause of action it alleged that the defendants had conspired and continued to conspire to deny it access in particular to the retail newsstands operated by the defendant Union News Company at the La Guardia Airport. In its third cause of action it alleged that the defendants had conspired and continued to conspire to deny it access in particular to retail newsstands operated by the Union News Company at various stations of the Long Island Railroad and other places in Queens, Nassau and Suffolk Counties. The plaintiff alleged that the conspiracy referred to in the three causes of action commenced about June 24, 1957. On October 5, 1964, a Pretrial Order signed by a Judge of this Court was entered herein. That Order defined the issues based upon the allegations that the conspiracy commenced about June 24, 1957. In January, 1967, the plaintiff moved to amend the Pretrial Order in regard to the time of the commencement of the conspiracy, the parties to the conspiracy, and the scope of the conspiracy. The substance of the motion was that the plaintiff following the entering of the Pretrial Order on October 5, 1964, had discovered the existence of an over-all conspiracy commencing in 1947 on the part of the defendants and certain other [898]*898alleged co-conspirators which had for its object and purpose the unlawful restraint and monopolization of the distribution of periodicals in the New York Metropolitan area. The alleged co-conspirators consisted of a number of distributors of periodicals and certain members of a union known as the Newspaper and Mail Deliverers Union. The plaintiff’s motion to amend the Pretrial Order was granted on January 23, 1967. The plaintiff did not ask, nor has it asked, that the alleged co-conspirators be made parties to this action.

3. The plaintiff is a New York corporation with its principal place of business at Long Island City, Borough of Queens. It was founded in 1951 and since 1952 it has been engaged in the wholesale distribution of periodicals in the New York Metropolitan area. The defendant American News Company formed in 1894. Its principal place of business is in the Borough of Manhattan. The defendant Union News Company, referred to in the plaintiff’s complaint, is a New York corporation formed in 1894 which up until 1960 was a wholly owned subsidiary of the defendant American News Company. In 1960 it was dissolved as a corporation and has since that time been operated as a division of that defendant. The defendant Manhattan News Company is a New York corporation formed in 1947. Its principal place of business is in the Borough of Manhattan. The defendant Pacific News Company is a New York corporation formed in 1955 with its principal place of business in the Borough of Kings, The defendant Henry Garfinkle is a resident of the State of New York. Up until 1955 he was the president of the defendant Manhattan News Company. All of the stock of that corporation was and is owned by his wife and trustees for his two sons. In 1955 he resigned as president of the defendant Manhattan News Company and became the president of the defendant American News Company. He was the owner of the stock of a New York corporation, the Garfield News Company, one of the alleged conspirators.

In the amended Pretrial Order the contentions of the plaintiff are stated as follows:

“3. (b) Plaintiff contends that all defendants, together with various other co-conspirators (some of whom are hereinafter described, but not named as parties), entered into a continuing unlawful combination, plan and conspiracy to control, and restrict the persons by whom and terms on which distribution of periodicals could be made, and to attempt to monopolize and to monopolize the wholesale and retail distribution of periodicals, in the Metropolitan New York area and elsewhere, and pursuant to such combination, plan and conspiracy, the defendants and co-conspirators did, in fact, restrict free access to, and trade in the fields of wholesale and retail periodical distribution, and attempted to and did in fact monopolize the aforesaid fields.
“The aforesaid combination, plan, and conspiracy is alleged to have commenced in or about 1947, to have substantially continued to date, to have affected, impaired and restrained the free flow of periodicals among the several states and to have injured plaintiff’s business and trade. It is alleged that all the defendants were originally party or became party thereto, together with various other co-conspirators not named as parties to this action, including (1) various members of the Newspaper and Mail Deliverers Union, such as Carmine Pellegrino, Victor Pellegrino, William Walsh, Harry Walzer, Joseph Simons, William Fello, Rocco Fello, also known as Barney Fello, Angelo Lospinuso, John Lawrence, Jr., Sam Feldman, Michael Spozate, Leon Braunstein, Joseph Baer, and others to plaintiff presently unknown; (2) Bronx County News Corp. and individual principals thereof; (3) Bi-County News Corp. and the successors in interest thereto including G. & S. Corporation [899]*899and the individual principals thereof; (4) Sel jan News Co., Inc. and individual principals thereof, including Joseph Weinstein and Morris Cohen; (5) Imperial News Co., Inc. and its predecessors in interest and the individual principals thereof; (6) Brooklyn News Co., Inc. and individual principals thereof; (7) Solomon Levine; (8) William Levine; (9) Charles Gordon, formerly known as Abraham Goldberg; (10) Selig Goldberg; (11) Irving Bitz, also known as Morris Grossman; (12) Curtis Publishing Company and its subsidiary companies, including Curtis Circulation Company and the other so-called ‘Curtis Distributors’ not specifically hereinabove named, who were organized as such in or about 1947; (18) Victor Lance; (14) Select Magazines, Inc. (to date, by operation of law, as an unwilling participant); (15) G. I.

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290 F. Supp. 896, 1968 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12229, 1968 Trade Cas. (CCH) 72,662, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/periodical-distributors-inc-v-american-news-co-nysd-1968.