United States v. E. C. Knight Co.

156 U.S. 1, 15 S. Ct. 249, 39 L. Ed. 325, 1895 U.S. LEXIS 2118
CourtSupreme Court of the United States
DecidedJanuary 21, 1895
Docket675
StatusPublished
Cited by311 cases

This text of 156 U.S. 1 (United States v. E. C. Knight Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of the United States primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. E. C. Knight Co., 156 U.S. 1, 15 S. Ct. 249, 39 L. Ed. 325, 1895 U.S. LEXIS 2118 (1895).

Opinions

[9]*9Mr. Chief Justice Fuller,

after stating the case, delivered the opinion of the court.

By the purchase of the stock of the four Philadelphia refineries, with shares of its own stock, the American Sugar Refining Company acquired nearly complete control of the manufacture of refined sugar within the United States. The bill charged that, the contracts under which these purchases were made constituted combinations in restraint of trade, and that in entering into them the defendants combined and conspired to restrain the trade and commerce in refined sugar among the several States aud with foreign nations, contrary to the act of Congress of July 2, 1890.

The relief sought was the cancellation of the agreements under which the stock was transferred; the redelivery of the stock to the parties respectively; and an injunction against the further performance of the agreements and further violations of the act. As usual, there was a prayer for general relief, but only such relief could be afforded under that- prayer as would be agreeable to the case made by the bill and consistent with that specifically prayed. And as to the injunction asked, that relief was ancillary to and in aid of the primary equity, or ground of suit, and, if that failed, would fall with it. That ground here was the existence-of contracts to monopolize interstate or international trade or commerce, and to restrain such trade or commerce, which, by the provisions of the act, could be rescinded, or operations thereunder arrested.

In commenting upon the statute, 21 Jac. 1, c. 3, at the commencement of chapter 85 of' the third- Institute, entitled “Against Monopolists, Propounders, and Projectors,” lord Coke, in language often quoted, said :

“ It appeareth by the preamble of this act (as a judgment in Parliament) that all grants of monopolies are against the ancient- and fundamental! laws of this Kingdome. And therefore it is necessary to define what a monopoly is.

'“A monopoly is an institution, or allowance by the King by his grant, commission, or otherwise to any person or persons, bodies politique, or corporate, of or for the sole [10]*10buying, selling, making, working, or using of anything, whereby any person or persons, bodies politique, or corporate, are sought to be restrained of any freedome or liberty that they had before, or hindred in their lawfull trade.

“For the word monopoly, dicitur dnr'o t8 fióvtí, (i. solo,) teal TrcoXeofiai, (i. vendere,) quod est cum umis solus ahquod genus mercaturce universum vendit, ut solus vendat, pretium ad suum libitum státuens: hereof you may read more at large in that case. Trin. 44 Eliz. Lib. 11, f. 84, 85; le case de monopolies.” 3 Inst. 181.

Counsel contend that this definition, as explained by the derivation of ih'e word, may be applied to all cases in which “ one person sells alone the whole of any kind of marketable thing, so that only he can continue to sell it, fixing the price at his own pleasure,” whether by virtue of legislative grant or agreement; that the monopolization referred to in the act of Congress is not confined to the common law sense of the term as implying an exclusive control, by authority, of one branch of industry without legal right of any other person to interfere therewith by competition or otherwise, but that it includes engrossing as well, and covers controlling the market by contracts securing the advantage of selling alone or exclusively all, or some considerable portion, of a particular kind of merchandise or commodity to the detriment of the public; and that such contracts amount to that restraint of trade or commerce declared to be illegal. But the monopoly and restraint denounced by the act are the monopoly and restraint of interstate and international trade or commerce,' while the conclusion to1 be assumed on this record is that the result of the transaction complained of was the creation of a monopoly in the manufacture of a necessary of life.

In the view which we take of the case, we need not discuss whether because the tentacles which drew the outlying refineries into the dominant corporation were- separately put out, therefore there wasj no combination to monopolize; or, because, •according to political economists, aggregations of capital may reduce prices, therefore the objection to concentration of power is relieved; or, because others were theoretically left [11]*11free to go into the business of refining sugar, and the original stockholders of the Philadelphia refineries after becoming stockholders of the American Company might go into competition with themselves, or, parting with that stock, might set up again for themselves, therefore no objectionable restraint was imposed.

The fundamental question is, whether conceding that the existence of a monopoly in manufacture is established by the evidence, that monopoly can be directly suppressed under the act of Congress in the mode attempted by this bill.

It cannot be denied that the power of a State to protect the lives, health, and property of its citizens, and to preserve good order and the public morals, “ the power to govern men and things within the limits of its dominion,” is a power originally and always belonging to the States, not surrendered by them to the general government, nor directly restrained by the Constitution of the United States, and essentially exclusive. The relief of the citizens of each State from the burden of monopoly and the evils resulting from the restraint of trade among suoh citizens was left with the States to deal with, and this court has recognized their possession of that'power even to the extént of holding that an employment or business carried on by private individuals, when it becomes a matter of such public interest and importance as to create a 'common charge or burden upon the citizen; in other words, ■when it becomes a practical monopoly, to. which, the citizen is compelled tó'resort and by means of which a tribute can be exacted from the. community, is subject to regulation by state legislative power. On the other hand, the power of Congress to regulate commerce among the several States is also exclusive. The Constitution does not provide that interstate commerce shall be free, but, by the grant of this exclusive power to regulate it, it was left free except as Congress might impose restraints. Therefore it has been determined that the failure of Congress to exercise this exclusive power in any case is an expression of its will that the subject shall be free from restrictions or impositions upon it by the several States, and if a law passed by a State in the exercise of its -acknowledged powers comes into conflict [12]*12with that will, the Congress and the State cannot occupy the position of equal opposing sovereignties, because the Constitution declares its supremacy and that of the laws passed in pursuance thereof; and that which is not supreme must yield to that which is supreme. “ Commerce, undoubtedly, is traffic,” said Chief Justice Marshall, “but it is something more.; it is intercourse. It describes the commercial intercourse between nations and parts of nations in all its branches, and is regulated by prescribing rules for carrying on that intercourse.” That which belongs to commerce is within the jurisdiction of the United States, but that which does not belong to commerce is within the jurisdiction of the police power of the State. Gibbons v. Ogden, 9 Wheat. 1, 189, 210; Brown v. Maryland, 12 Wheat. 419, 448; The License Cases, 5 How. 504, 599;

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
156 U.S. 1, 15 S. Ct. 249, 39 L. Ed. 325, 1895 U.S. LEXIS 2118, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-e-c-knight-co-scotus-1895.