United States v. Kahan & Lessin Co. And Landstrom Distributors, Inc.

695 F.2d 1122, 1982 U.S. App. LEXIS 24137
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedNovember 12, 1982
Docket81-1584, 81-1585
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 695 F.2d 1122 (United States v. Kahan & Lessin Co. And Landstrom Distributors, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Kahan & Lessin Co. And Landstrom Distributors, Inc., 695 F.2d 1122, 1982 U.S. App. LEXIS 24137 (9th Cir. 1982).

Opinion

PER CURIAM:

Four health food distributors were indicted for conspiring to restrain trade by agreeing to fix prices, terms, and conditions of sale of natural foods, vitamins, and cosmetics, in violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1. Two of them, Nature’s Best and Tree of Life West, entered pleas of nolo contendere before trial. A jury convicted the remaining two, Kahan & Les-sin Co. (K&L) and Landstrom Distributors, Inc. (Landstrom).

K&L and Landstrom appeal. We AFFIRM.

FACTS

Appellants K&L and Landstrom were the only full-line health food distributors in California before 1974. In 1973-74, Nature’s Best and Tree of Life West entered the health food market and offered special discounts to compete with appellants.

The government established that during four meetings these four distributors agreed to eliminate elements of price competition by not offering distributor-originated discounts at trade shows, by terminating rebates, imposing split case charges and interest charges, limiting discounts, and by agreeing on convention specials.

ISSUES

Appellants here contend that:

1) the indictment is invalid because of intrusions by unauthorized persons during the grand jury proceedings;
2) the indictment failed to allege an agreement, an essential element of a conspiracy;
3) a letter to K&L from an unindicted health food distributor regarding new listing prices was improperly admitted in evidence;
*1124 4) appellants were deprived of needed testimony because of the failure to grant them access to their witnesses or to grant these witnesses immunity;
5) evidence of meetings that were held before the time set forth in the indictment was improperly admitted;
6) the evidence was at variance with the indictment;
7) the jury was erroneously instructed on the government’s per se antitrust theory;
8) proof of an agreement was inadequate; and
9) appellants were denied a fair trial because of the government’s misconduct.

DISCUSSION

Appellants contend that the indictment should be dismissed because unauthorized persons intruded into the grand jury proceedings in violation of Fed.R.Crim.P. 6(d). The District Court found that the grand jury proceedings halted during the inadvertent intrusions. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in United States v. Computer Sciences Corp., 689 F.2d 1181 (1982), found that five separate unauthorized intrusions were “rare, inadvertent, and nonprejudicial”, and reversed the trial judge’s dismissal of the indictment. We hold that when there were no proceedings during the inadvertent intrusions into the grand jury room, dismissal is not warranted. United States v. Rath, 406 F.2d 757 (6th Cir.), cert. denied, 394 U.S. 920, 89 S.Ct. 1196, 22 L.Ed.2d 453 (1969).

There is no merit in appellants’ contention that the indictment failed to allege an agreement. As appellants acknowledge, paragraph eight did allege an agreement; it was not necessary for every subsection of the following paragraph to reallege an agreement.

Appellants contend that the District Court erred in admitting Government’s Exhibit 3, a letter to K&L from an unindicted health food distributor discussing new listing prices. Evidentiary rulings may only be reversed for an abuse of discretion. Here there was no abuse. Nevertheless, the error, if any, was harmless in light of other evidence on the agreement on new listing prices. Cf. United States v. Hollingshead, 672 F.2d 751, 755 (9th Cir.1982) (evidentiary error is subject to the harmless error provision of Fed.R.Crim.P. 52(a)).

Appellants contend that they were deprived of needed testimony because the government would not extend immunity to a number of their witnesses. We reject that contention because appellants failed to show that the testimony would have been favorable to them. Under the standard of review set forth in United States v. Garner, 663 F.2d 834, 839 (9th Cir.1981), cert. denied, 456 U.S. 905, 102 S.Ct. 1750, 72 L.Ed.2d 161 (1982), the case upon which appellants rely, there is no error in the absence of evidence that the witnesses would have testified favorably.

Appellants also contend that they were deprived of a number of witnesses because the government actively discouraged these witnesses from cooperating. The District Court gave appellants access to at least one witness during the trial, and appellants have failed to show that they were denied access to the other witnesses. Even when the government hid witnesses, the court in United States v. Cook, 608 F.2d 1175, 1181 (9th Cir.1978), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 1034, 100 S.Ct. 706, 62 L.Ed.2d 670 (1980), held that the defense was not unduly handicapped when the defendant had access to the witnesses during the trial. There was no error here.

Appellants contend that questions asked by government counsel entitled them to a mistrial. Counsel asked one witness whether he was a codefendant with K&L in a related antitrust treble damage civil action. The District Court disallowed the question and cautioned the jury. Counsel also asked a number of witnesses about meetings held before the commencement of the conspiracy as alleged in the indictment. Again, the District Court disallowed the questions, and cautioned the jury. The trial judge can cure many evidentiary errors with appropriate cautionary instructions, as *1125 was done here. United States v. Sanford, 673 F.2d 1070, 1072 (9th Cir.1982). As with other evidentiary rulings, on motions for mistrial the trial court has broad discretion, and its rulings will not be reversed unless there was an abuse of that discretion that unfairly prejudiced the appellants. Id. 1073. The denial of the motion for mistrial and the later motion for a new trial did not constitute an abuse of discretion nor is it reversible error.

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Bluebook (online)
695 F.2d 1122, 1982 U.S. App. LEXIS 24137, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-kahan-lessin-co-and-landstrom-distributors-inc-ca9-1982.