State Ex Rel. La Sota v. Arizona Licensed Beverage Ass'n

627 P.2d 666, 128 Ariz. 515, 1981 Ariz. LEXIS 185
CourtArizona Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 11, 1981
Docket14692
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 627 P.2d 666 (State Ex Rel. La Sota v. Arizona Licensed Beverage Ass'n) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Arizona Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State Ex Rel. La Sota v. Arizona Licensed Beverage Ass'n, 627 P.2d 666, 128 Ariz. 515, 1981 Ariz. LEXIS 185 (Ark. 1981).

Opinion

CAMERON, Justice.

This is an appeal by the State from a judgment of dismissal in an action for price fixing in violation of the Uniform State Antitrust Act, A.R.S. § 44-1401 et seq. We have jurisdiction pursuant to Rule 19(e), Rules of Civil Appellate Procedure, 17A A.R.S.

The issues we must resolve are:

1. Does the Arizona Uniform State Antitrust Act apply to the conduct of the defendants in this case?
2. Did the trial court make clearly erroneous findings of fact?
3. Did the trial court make evidentiary rulings which constituted prejudicial error?
4. Was the conduct of the Arizona Licensed Beverage Association and the individually named defendants lawful under the Arizona Fair Trade Practices Act?
5. Did Diamond Publications, Inc., by accepting and placing advertisements in the Arizona Beverage Journal containing price lists of alcoholic beverages, become part of an illegal price fixing conspiracy?

The pertinent facts are as follows. Defendant Arizona Licensed Beverage Association (ALBA) is a non-profit trade association of liquor retailers in the state. The organization, which has been in existence for over 30 years, meets approximately four times a year and has a membership of about 1500 retailers. Topics of discussion at the meetings have been legislation, fair trade agreements with various liquor distillers and distributors, profit margins on products, reports on trade shows, fund raising projects, and insurance programs available to members.

Defendant Diamond Publications, Inc., publishes the Arizona Beverage Journal which is considered the trade journal for the liquor industry in Arizona. Until 1976, the Journal published price lists for many of the alcoholic beverages sold in Arizona. The price lists contained three columns of figures; the first column was the wholesale price per case of a particular brand of liquor, the second column contained the wholesale price per bottle, and the third column, designated as the “minimum stop price,” was the minimum retail price to be charged per bottle pursuant to fair trade agreements. Distillers and distributors purchased the space containing the price lists as part of their advertising and determined all of the prices listed.

On 3 December 1975, the Attorney General instituted this action for violations of the Uniform State Antitrust Act which had been adopted in Arizona effective 9 August 1974. The complaint alleged that the defendants engaged in a conspiracy to fix, maintain and stabilize prices for alcoholic beverages in Arizona from a time prior to 1966 to December 1975.

The action was tried before Judge Marilyn A. Riddel, sitting without a jury, in the Maricopa County Superior Court. At the close of the State’s case, the court dismissed the complaint and entered the following findings of fact and conclusions of law pursuant to Rules 41(b) and 52(a), Arizona Rules of Civil Procedure, 16 A.R.S.:

“1. The statute under which plaintiff got its authority to institute the within action became effective August 9, 1974.
“2. Suit was filed December 3, 1975 and no supplemental complaint has been filed.
“3. The Arizona Fair Trade Act was in effect at all times material hereto (covering the entire period of the testimony adduced) and was not repealed until June 1, 1976.
“4. For many, many years previous to suit the minimum stop price (minimum retail price) published in the Arizona Beverage Journal was treated both by custom and by usage, by all concerned as the ‘fair trade price’ for the item advertised, *518 to wit: the price for which that item was to be sold at retail. Said prices were published at the instance and behest of the individual wholesalers acting individually and were published in lieu of delivering an individual retail price list with each delivery by a wholesaler to a retailer as had previously been tried with somewhat unsatisfactory results.
“5. The minimum stop price was established monthly by the individual wholesaler without any consultation with or input from any retailer or any other wholesaler.
“6. On one occasion in 1971 Hyman and Kaufman [defendants] went to Copperstate [distributor] to solicit a fair trade contract as to that distributor’s products; however, all of the ‘fair trade contracts’ in evidence were signed by the retailers at the specific request of the individual wholesalers.
“7. There was no economic or other coersion [coercion] exercised to compel retail price maintenance and no boycott of any kind for that purpose.
“8. Over the years (particularly to August 9, 1974). the subject of the Arizona Fair Trade Act, fair trade contracts, profit margins and related subjects were discussed at ALBA meetings and between individual retailers. Occasionally a retailer would contact a wholesaler to report that another business was not adhering to the minimum stop price, both before and shortly after August 9, 1974. “Based upon the foregoing findings and the state of the law in the State of Arizona between August 9,1974 and December 3, (and probably through May 31, 1976), the state has not proved that defendant (or any of them) did anything which the law prohibited them from doing as alleged in the complaint.”

Judgment was entered in favor of Diamond Publications, Inc., on 10 January 1978 and in favor of the remaining defendants on 14 February 1978.

The State’s motion to vacate judgments, for a new trial and to amend and make additional findings of fact were denied and this appeal followed.

DOES THE ANTITRUST ACT APPLY?

The Arizona Fair Trade Practices Act, A.R.S. § 44-1421 et seq., was adopted in Arizona in 1936 and was in force and effect during the time covered by the complaint. The act states:

“§ 44-1422. Provisions permitted in contracts related to sale or resale of fair trade commodities; fair trade commodities defined; implied exceptions to contract provisions
“A. No contract relating to the sale or resale of a commodity which bears the trade-mark, brand or name of the producer or owner of the commodity, or the label or container of which bears such trade-mark, brand or name, and which is in fair and open competition with commodities of the same general class produced by others shall be deemed to violate any law of the state by reason of any of the following provisions which may be contained in the contract:
1. That the buyer will not resell such commodity except at the price stipulated by the vendor.
2. That the vendee or producer require in delivery to whom he may resell such commodity to agree that he will not, in turn, resell except at the price stipulated by such vendor or by such vendee.
“§ 44-1423.

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Bluebook (online)
627 P.2d 666, 128 Ariz. 515, 1981 Ariz. LEXIS 185, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-la-sota-v-arizona-licensed-beverage-assn-ariz-1981.