State v. American Sugar Refining Co.

68 So. 742, 137 La. 407, 1915 La. LEXIS 2010
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedMay 24, 1915
DocketNo. 21051
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 68 So. 742 (State v. American Sugar Refining Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. American Sugar Refining Co., 68 So. 742, 137 La. 407, 1915 La. LEXIS 2010 (La. 1915).

Opinion

LAND, J.

The original petition of the plaintiff covers 58 printed pages; but, for [409]*409the purpose of the decision of the issues presented by this appeal, it suffices to state that this is a suit to cancel the license of the defendant corporation to do business in this state, and to oust it from the state, and to enjoin it from doing any business therein, because of its alleged long and persistent violation of the anti-trust and anti-monopoly laws of the state of Louisiana, and particularly having engaged in a conspiracy to force down the price of raw sugar, an important agricultural product of this state, and to enhance the price of refined sugar in this state for speculative purposes, and of having .conspired to-restrain trade and commerce in sugar within the state of Louisiana, and of having monopolized arid confined and conspired to monopolize trade and commerce in sugar within the state of Louisiana, and to have thereby forfeited the right to engage in business in Louisiana.

Plaintiff filed an amended and supplemental petifion, which, after reiterating and amplifying a number of the charges set forth in the original petition, alleged, in substance:

That the sugar planters of Louisiana produce about 600,000 tons of sugar a year, and that the depression of one-half a cent a pound thereon constitutes an immense annual loss to them.

That the continued operations of the defendant company will bring ruin to many of the planters, unless the temporary rise of prices due to the European war saves them. ’That by reason of great peril the sugar industry should be protected from the further depredations of the American Sugar Refining Company by whatever remedies the law affords.

“That the Chalmette Refinery of the American Sugar Refining Company, in the parish of St. Bernard, immediately south of New Orleans, is the only refinery which can handle the Louisiana crop, except the Louisiana Refinery, which the American Sugar Refining Company, for monopolistic purposes, has closed down, although still fully equipped, and that, by reason of the closing down of said Louisiana Refinery, and of all other competitive refineries, by the American Sugar Refining Company, and by reason of the conduct of the American Sugar Refining Company, in aborting all attempts to establish competitive refineries, said company is under an obligation to the public to conduct said Chalmette Refinery as a quasi public utility, that the American Sugar Refining Company is actively violating its' obligation to so conduct said Chalmette Refinery, by arbitrarily closing same down, and announcing its withdrawal from 'the market as a buyer, notwithstanding the fact that the crop of Louisiana raw sugar is about to come to the market, and has practically no other outlet than said Chalmette Refinery; and that the consequence of such action will be great demoralization in the Louisiana sugar industry and great and incalculable loss to those interested therein.”

The supplemental petition concluded with a prayer for a rule on the defendant to show cause why an injunction should not issue “prohibiting the misuse and abuse by the American Sugar Refining Company of the corporate franchise heretofore enjoyed by it under the Constitution and laws of this state, and carrying on of any business by the American Sugar Refining Company within the state of Louisiana.”

And the plaintiff further prayed that the defendant be ordered to show cause “why, to render said injunction fully effective, there should not be a receiver appointed to all the property, rights, and credits of the American Sugar Refining Company, within -the state, and why, in the interest of the public, the business of the said American Sugar Refining Company, pendente lite, should not be carried on by such receiver, and especially why the Chalmette Refinery should not be operated.”

And the plaintiff further prayed that the defendant be ordered to show cause, in the alternative, if a receiver be not appointed, with authority to operate, why there should not be a judicial sequestration of all the property, rights, and credits of the. defendant within the state of Louisiana, and why a judicial sequestrator should not be appointed with such powers as the court might grant.

[411]*411The original and supplemental petitions were filed in the name of the state of Louisiana “by Chandler C. Luzenberg, district attorney for the parish of Orleans, acting under the direction of his excellency, L. E. Hall, Governor.”

Defendant appeared and excepted to said rule as follows:

“(1) That this suit is brought and this rule therein is taken solely under the provisions of article 190 of the Constitution of 1913, and said article is illegal, unconstitutional, null, void, and of no effect, because it was framed, ordained, and adopted by a constitutional convention called, convened, and assembled, under Act No. 1 of the Second Extraordinary Session of 1913, which said act is and was unconstitutional, null, void, and of no effect, for the reason that same was passed in contravention of the provisions of article 75 of the Constitution of this state, adopted in the year 1898.
“(2) That if the whole of the addition made by the Constitution of 1913 to article 190 of the Constitution of 1898 be not null, void, and of no effect, then that portion thereof, reading' as follows, viz.: ‘And it shall be the duty of the Attorney General, of his own motion, or any district attorney of the state, when so directed by the Governor or the Attorney General, to enforce this provision, by injunction or other legal proceeding's, in the name of the state of Louisiana, and particularly by suits for the forfeiture of the charters of offending corporations, incorporated under the laws of the state of Louisiana, and for the ouster from this state .of foreign corporations,’ — is illegal, unconstitutional, null, void, and of no effect, for the reasons and causes following, to wit: That Act No. 1 of said Extraordinary Session of 1913, under and by virtue of which said convention convened, assembled and sat, provided, inter alia: ‘ * * * That the said convention shall be, and is hereby prohibited from enacting, ordaining or framing any article or ordinance. * * * (c) Changing the provisions of existing laws touching, relating to, or in any manner affecting- the following subjects. * * * (5) The term of office, duties, or compensation of any existing officer.’
“And that said article 190 of the Constitution of 1913, ‘touches, relates to, affects and changes the duties of the Attorney General and district attorneys,’ and especially of the district attorney of the parish of Orleans, who was without power or authority to represent the state of Louisiana in civil cases.
“(3) That no right or cause of action is shown in the averments upon the said rule, for sundry reasons, among others, that there is no warrant of law authorizing the appointment of a receiver, or for the issuance of an injunction, or a judicial sequestration in a case like this; that the only relief provided by article 190 of the Constitution of 1913 is .the penalty of ouster;, which can be imposed only by final judgment after issue joined and formal trial; that to-grant the preliminary relief prayed for would deprive the defendant of its property without, due process of law, and divest its vested rights, without previous compensation in violation of articles 2 and 166 of the Constitution of this-state, and of the fourteenth amendment of the-Constitution of the United States.”

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Bluebook (online)
68 So. 742, 137 La. 407, 1915 La. LEXIS 2010, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-american-sugar-refining-co-la-1915.