United States v. Aluminum Company of America

247 F. Supp. 308
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Missouri
DecidedApril 16, 1965
Docket61 C 147(2)
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 247 F. Supp. 308 (United States v. Aluminum Company of America) 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
United States v. Aluminum Company of America, 247 F. Supp. 308 (E.D. Mo. 1965).

Opinion

247 F.Supp. 308 (1962)

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff,
v.
ALUMINUM COMPANY OF AMERICA and Cupples Products Corporation, Defendants.

No. 61 C 147(2).

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

July 30, 1962.
Final Judgment December 4, 1964.
Order Modifying Order April 16, 1965.

*309 Lee Loevinger, Asst. Atty. Gen., Charles L. Whittinghill, and Edna Lingreen, Chief Counsel, U. S. Dept. of Justice, Washington, D. C., Joe E. Waters, Francis A. Kareken, and James F. Buckley, Attys., Dept. of Justice, Washington, D. C., and Richard D. Fitz-Gibbon, Jr., U. S. Atty., St. Louis, Mo., for plaintiff.

Thos. S. McPheeters, Jr., Bryan, Cave, McPheeters & McRoberts, St. Louis, Mo., William K. Unverzagt, Pittsburgh, Pa., Herbert A. Bergson and Bergson & Borkland, Washington, D. C., for defendants.

MEREDITH, District Judge.

This suit was filed April 27, 1961, by the United States of America alleging jurisdiction under § 15 of the Clayton Act to prevent the violation of § 7 of said Act, 15 U.S.C.A. § 18. The petition alleges that on January 25, 1960, Aluminum Company of America (hereinafter called Alcoa) acquired all of the outstanding shares of Cupples Products Corporation (hereinafter called Cupples) in *310 exchange for stock of Alcoa pursuant to an agreement of November 20, 1959. The prayer asks that the acquisition of the stock of Cupples by Alcoa be adjudged a violation of § 7 of the Clayton Act and that Alcoa be required to divest itself of the stock and interest in Cupples.

On May 22, 1962, the plaintiff filed a Motion for Preliminary Injunction which has been briefed by defendants and plaintiff, and oral argument has been heard. The Motion for Preliminary Injunction asks that the defendants be restrained from building an Alcoa plant at Corona, California, (hereinafter referred to as the West Coast Plant) for the fabrication of aluminum residential and non-residential windows, doors, door frames, entrances, and curtain walls, and that Alcoa and Cupples be prevented from future commingling of Alcoa and Cupples assets and from transferring Cupples employees to Alcoa and from utilizing the Cupples employees in the construction and operation of any Alcoa facility.

The matter has been submitted on affidavits. For the government there were affidavits of J. E. Waters, attorney for the Department of Justice, Lionel Epstein, an employee of the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice, Edna Lingreen, attorney for the Department of Justice, and Fred Miller, a supervisory architectural engineer with the General Services Administration. For defendants, there were affidavits of M. M. Anderson, executive vice president of Alcoa, Charles C. Moran, president of Cupples, and Donald H. Green, an attorney of the firm of Bergson and Borkland, representing defendants.

FINDINGS OF FACT

For the exclusive purpose of this Motion for Preliminary Injunction, we find the following facts:

1. Defendant companies are both engaged in commerce within the meaning of § 7 of the Clayton Act.
2. Of the six domestic producers of primary aluminum and aluminum semi-finished and finished products in the United States, only three, Alcoa, Reynolds and Kaiser, are fully integrated from mine to consumer. In 1960 these three controlled 88% of the domestic capacity for production of primary aluminum, Alcoa accounting for 38.6%, Reynolds, 26.4%, and Kaiser, 23%.
3. In 1960 Alcoa had total assets of $1,374,134,148 with profits for the year of $40,044,105 on net sales of $861,211,772.
4. In 1958 Alcoa's fabricating operations consumed the bulk of Alcoa's primary production. Fabricated products accounted for 76% of their revenues in 1958.
5. Recently further integration of the three primary aluminum producers has been attempted or achieved by acquisitions of wire and cable producers and aluminum foil producers.
6. The three primary producers of aluminum have expanded or attempted to expand in the field of fabricating aluminum extrusions, residential and non-residential windows, curtain wall, doors, door frames and entrances. Reynolds has expanded through the development of its own facilities. Kaiser has been enjoined by this Court from acquiring Kawneer Company, a leading independent fabricator of the above-mentioned products. Alcoa has acquired Cupples, one of the largest independent and most successful fabricators engaged in the production and sale of residential and non-residential windows, doors, door frames, entrances, curtain wall, suspended ceiling systems and highway and bridge guard railing.
7. Cupples' sales rose 44.4% over the five-year period 1955 through 1959, and its assets increased from $4,547,644 in 1955 to $5,855,587 in 1959 at the time of acquisition. In 1960 total assets were $7,800,000 with a liability to Alcoa of $3,200,000. On December 31, 1961, Cupples' total assets were $12,000,000 with a liability to Alcoa of $7,500,000.
*311 8. In 1959 Cupples had three plants located in St. Louis, Missouri; Dowagiac, Michigan; and Dallas, Texas. Products produced in St. Louis were extrusions, windows, curtain wall, suspended ceiling systems, highway railing, doors and trim; in Dowagiac, doors, door frames, entrances; and in Dallas, windows.
9. Of 12 million pounds of aluminum used by Cupples in 1959, 4,812,000 were purchased from Alcoa. Among the major customers of Alcoa producing residential and non-residential windows, doors, door frames, entrances or curtain wall, in 1959, Cupples ranked second in physical volume and third in dollar value of purchases.
10. In 1957 each of eleven fabricators used over a million pounds of aluminum for curtain walls, accounting for 65% of the total used in curtain walls that year. These eleven fabricators, in the order of their volume use of aluminum for curtain walls, were Cupples, Reynolds, Valley Metal, Michael Flynn, Ludman, General Bronze, Flour City, Adams and Westlake, Marmet, Fentron, and Browne Window.
11. Cupples' consolidated net profits after taxes were:
1955  —  $334,347.92
1956  —   396,419.53
1957  —   309,365.90
1958  —   343,130.13
1959  — (-) 21,038.12
12. In 1960 Alcoa's percentage of extrusions shipped by all domestic producers was 19.6%. In that year manufacturers of building products were the largest single group of consumers of extruded products. Manufacturers of building products accounted for 46.3% of Alcoa's extruded products in 1960.
13. Windows, doors and curtain wall combined account for the largest endproduct uses of aluminum extrusions.
14. In the period from 1947 to 1960, aluminum, as opposed to steel and wood, has tremendously increased in its building use as follows:
Residential prime windows from 5% to 45%;
Non-residential prime windows from 11% to 66%;
Sliding doors from 10% to 92%;
Curtain walls, frames only, from negligible amount to 90%.
This increased use of aluminum is in part realized because of such characteristics as its light weight, variety of forms, textures and colors, resistance to corrosion, its colorless salts, its electrical conductivity and its freedom from maintenance.
15.

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247 F. Supp. 308, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-aluminum-company-of-america-moed-1965.