Seasongood v. K & K INS. AGCY.

414 F. Supp. 698
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Missouri
DecidedSeptember 2, 1976
Docket75-648 C (1)
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 414 F. Supp. 698 (Seasongood v. K & K INS. AGCY.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Seasongood v. K & K INS. AGCY., 414 F. Supp. 698 (E.D. Mo. 1976).

Opinion

414 F.Supp. 698 (1976)

Lester SEASONGOOD, Plaintiff,
v.
K & K INSURANCE AGENCY, an Indiana Corporation et al., Defendants.

No. 75-648 C (1).

United States District Court, E. D. Missouri, E. D.

February 10, 1976.
As Amended September 2, 1976.

*699 Jim J. Shoemake, Edward G. Farmer, Jr., Guilfoil, Symington & Petzall, St. Louis, Mo., for plaintiff.

Richard M. Stout, Kirkwood, Mo., William I. Rutherford, William E. Buckley, Lashly, Caruthers, Thies, Rava & Hamel, Veryl L. Riddle, John J. Hennelly, Jr., Bryan, Cave, McPheeters & McRoberts, St. Louis, Mo., for defendants.

MEMORANDUM

MEREDITH, Chief Judge.

This action is before the Court on the motions of the several defendants to dismiss or, in the alternative, for a more definite statement. For the reasons stated below, the motions to dismiss shall be granted.

Plaintiff, an insurance agent and broker, had for a period of eighteen years provided a master plan of insurance for defendant Sports Car Club of America (SCCA), a corporation organized to promote and sanction sports car races and other events. SCCA membership consists of almost one hundred regional clubs, each a separate corporation, which sponsor various sports car events under the SCCA sanction. One requirement for an SCCA sanction is the purchase of insurance coverage approved by the SCCA. Prior to February of 1975 plaintiff, under the master plan he had developed with SCCA, provided ninety-nine per cent of the coverage for the local affiliates. In February of 1975, the SCCA switched its master plan coverage from plaintiff to defendant K & K Insurance Agency (K & K), which placed the insurance with defendant Foremost Insurance Company (Foremost).

Plaintiff brings this treble damages action under section 4 of the Clayton Act, 15 U.S.C. § 15, alleging in Counts I and II that defendants, in combination with other "nondefendant co-conspirators," presumably the SCCA's local affiliates, have boycotted, coerced, and intimidated plaintiff in restraint of trade in violation of section 1 of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1, and have monopolized, attempted to monopolize, and combined and conspired to monopolize the business of insuring sports car events sanctioned by SCCA in violation of section 2 of the Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C. § 2. Count III of plaintiff's complaint is based on sections 375.930, et seq., R.S.Mo.1969, which prohibit unfair practices in the insurance industry, and specifically on section 375.936(1), which prohibits acts of boycott, coercion, and intimidation.

Plaintiff alleges that defendants, with the purpose and intent of boycotting plaintiff and monopolizing the business of insuring SCCA sanctioned sports car events, concertedly engaged in the following wrongful acts: (1) K & K and Foremost by "representations" induced SCCA to switch its *700 master plan coverage to them and give them an exclusive contract for the writing of approved policies; (2) SCCA for reasons "not based on its independent business judgment" wrongfully terminated its approval of the policies written by plaintiff and gave K & K and Foremost an exclusive contract; and (3) SCCA coerced its local affiliates into refusing to deal with plaintiff by threatening to withhold the SCCA sanction unless the local clubs purchased their insurance solely through the K & K master plan.

Each of the defendants has filed a motion to dismiss Counts I and II on the grounds, among others, that the challenged practices are exempted from the federal antitrust laws by the McCarran-Ferguson Act, 15 U.S.C. §§ 1011-1015, and to dismiss Count III on the grounds that sections 375.930, et seq., R.S.Mo. do not provide for a private right of action.

The McCarran-Ferguson Act, which exempts the business of insurance from federal antitrust laws to the extent that the state involved has enacted similar legislation and so long as the act complained of is not one of boycott, coercion, or intimidation, reads in pertinent part:

"Section 1012 . . . (b) No Act of Congress shall be construed to invalidate, impair, or supersede any law enacted by any State for the purpose of regulating the business of insurance, or which imposes a fee or tax upon such business, unless such Act specifically relates to the business of insurance: Provided, That . . the Sherman Act, . . . the Clayton Act, and . . . the Federal Trade Commission Act . . . shall be applicable to the business of insurance to the extent that such business is not regulated by State law."
"Section 1013 . . . (b) Nothing contained in this chapter shall render the said Sherman Act inapplicable to any agreement to boycott, coerce, or intimidate, or act of boycott, coercion, or intimidation."

Plaintiff contends that defendants' actions are not sheltered by the McCarran-Ferguson Act antitrust exclusion because the activities complained of are not the "business of insurance" within the meaning of section 1012(b), and that the practices fall within the section 1013(b) exception for boycott, coercion, or intimidation.

The Supreme Court in S.E.C. v. National Securities, Inc., 393 U.S. 453, 89 S.Ct. 564, 21 L.Ed.2d 668 (1969), set forth the standard to be used in determining whether a challenged practice is the "business of insurance" within the meaning of section 1012(b). Finding that Congress in enacting the McCarran-Ferguson Act "was mainly concerned with the relationship between insurance ratemaking and the antitrust laws, and with the power of the States to tax insurance companies," the Court stated:

"The statute did not purport to make the States supreme in regulating all the activities of insurance companies; its language refers not to the persons or companies who are subject to state regulation, but to laws `regulating the business of insurance.' Insurance companies may do many things which are subject to paramount federal regulation; only when they are engaged in the `business of insurance' does the statute apply. Certainly the fixing of rates is part of this business; that is what South-Eastern Underwriters was all about. The selling and advertising of policies, FTC v. National Casualty Co., 357 U.S. 560 [78 S.Ct. 1260, 2 L.Ed.2d 1540] (1958), and the licensing of companies and their agents, cf. Robertson v. California, 328 U.S. 440 [66 S.Ct. 1160, 90 L.Ed. 1366] (1946), are also within the scope of the statute. Congress was concerned with the type of state regulation that centers around the contract of insurance, the transaction which Paul v. Virginia

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Bluebook (online)
414 F. Supp. 698, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/seasongood-v-k-k-ins-agcy-moed-1976.