U-Haul International, Inc. v. Jartran, Inc.

601 F. Supp. 1140, 225 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 306, 1984 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 21749
CourtDistrict Court, D. Arizona
DecidedNovember 26, 1984
DocketCIV 80-454 PHX-EHC
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 601 F. Supp. 1140 (U-Haul International, Inc. v. Jartran, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Arizona primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
U-Haul International, Inc. v. Jartran, Inc., 601 F. Supp. 1140, 225 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 306, 1984 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 21749 (D. Ariz. 1984).

Opinion

*1143 MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

CARROLL, District Judge.

This action was filed by U-Haul International, Inc. (U-Haul), June 16,1980, seeking to enjoin continued publication of certain advertisements by Jartran, Inc. (Jartran) as well as recovery of damages claimed to result from that advertising program. *

The application for preliminary injunction was heard in December, 1980 and January, 1981. The Court’s Order, entered February 17, 1981, granting a preliminary injunction is reported in U-Haul Intern., Inc. v. Jartran, Inc., 522 F.Supp. 1238 (D.Ariz. 1981).

Jartran appealed the February 17, 1981 order, attacking the Court’s findings that the ads at issue in the preliminary injunction proceeding were false and deceptive as well as challenging the Court’s ruling that the Lanham Act, Section 43(a), 15 U.S.C. § 1125(a), was not limited in its application to “palming off” one’s goods or services as the product of another. The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed, U-Haul Int’l, Inc. v. Jartran, 681 F.2d 1159 (1982):

... It would not support the goals of the Act to hold the kind of deception Jartran practiced in its advertising not actionable * under section 43(a). Id. 681

F.2d at 1162.

The matter came on for trial on February 24, 1983. ** The parties waived a jury on the day of trial. The trial extended for nineteen days, with more than three thousand two hundred pages of testimony. Seventy persons testified personally or by way of deposition. Over two hundred exhibits were admitted, consisting of countless thousands of pages.

Pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.R. 65(a)(2), evidence received during the extensive preliminary injunction hearing, which was admissible upon the trial of the merits, is a part of the trial record.

Post-trial briefs, together with proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law, were filed with the Court. The matter has been under advisement since mid-June, 1983.

Preliminary Discussion:

The February 17, 1981 Memorandum Opinion, granting the preliminary injunction outlines the nature of the proceedings, the status of the parties, and gives a general background of how the controversy developed. The opinion also sets forth the Court’s findings with respect to a series of Jartran ads comparing its equipment, either directly or by explicit inference, with that of U-Haul.

Trial issues also involved a series of price comparison ads with U-Haul which Jartran had run prior to the equipment comparison ads. As noted in the preliminary injunction order, the character of these ads was reserved until time of trial.

The third trial issue, and the most troublesome to the Court, concerned the extent of damages which U-Haul sustained if Jartran’s advertising programs were found violative of the Lanham Act or common law claims of unfair competition and disparagement.

For the reasons noted later in this Order, the findings and conclusions set forth in the Memorandum Opinion of February 17, 1981, and incorporated as a part of this Order. I reach similar findings and conclusions regarding the price comparison ads, and conclude that U-Haul was substantially damaged by those advertising activities.

My ultimate findings and conclusions may be summarized as follows:

In 1978, James A. Ryder terminated his relationship with Ryder System, an entity he founded and controlled for many years. In the mid-1970s, Ryder System brought *1144 in new management and Ryder was largely being ignored. In 1978, although he was then 60+ , he terminated his relationship with Ryder System, and concluded to start another company which would be competitive with some of the services provided by Ryder System. This new entity was first called Jarpool and later evolved into Jartran and JAR Corporation. The JAR in these various corporate titles was to identify and establish the presence of James A. Ryder.

Jartran’s first activities involved leasing large truck and trailer units to commercial enterprises. Growth was limited and Ryder determined to expand the company into the self-move rental business. Jartran’s new scope of operations would bring it into direct competition with U-Haul, the longtime leader — or sole occupant — of that industry.

Jartran at the time of incorporation, had limited financing, minimal corporate organization, and little equipment. Through Ryder’s efforts, Jartran survived its premature birth and was able to arrange the acquisition of trucks and then trailers, through creative deficit financing. It obtained its equipment, most of it located in Detroit, Michigan, from Dodge and Ford (trucks) and Fruehauf (trailers). These manufacturers not only provided equipment for Jartran, but did so with a “financing package of 110 percent, sometimes 115”, i.e., equipment plus cash or credit to Jartran.

Jartran was faced with an immediate practical and financial problem — how to get these prospective rental units from Detroit to dealers or rental centers throughout the United States. At the same time, Jartran was also making arrangements for a dealer-distribution network. This effort largely consisted of hiring former Ryder System and U-Haul executives to head up the dealer-distribution program.

It was estimated to cost about $8,000,-000.00 to move these units from Detroit to rental outlets. Someone in the Jartran organization proposed that this distribution effort could be incorporated in an advertising campaign, such that persons would rent the equipment at Detroit and move it throughout the United States. Such an advertising program had several beneficial aspects:

It would get the equipment out of Detroit, and to ultimate market areas;
It would place Jartran before the self-move public as an immediate and full-born competitor of U-Haul;
It would enable Jartran to dramatically and repetitively image itself on a nationwide basis as a new — other—provider of self-movement equipment, safer and more attractive, and substantially less expensive to rent than U-Haul;
It would provide immediate cash flow to Jartran necessary to its financial survival. Jartran had monthly equipment payments totaling $3,500,000.

Was this effort successful? Consider the early record of Jartran’s consumer rental division:

Within a period of weeks, Jartran ads appeared on a national basis. Over 2,000 ads were published between mid-1979 and the end of 1980;
Equipment was rented in Detroit and driven or towed to market areas throughout the United States;
Gross revenues (rounded) rose from $3,000,000 in 1979, to $58,000,000 in 1980, and $95,000,000 in 1981;

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Bluebook (online)
601 F. Supp. 1140, 225 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 306, 1984 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 21749, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/u-haul-international-inc-v-jartran-inc-azd-1984.