United States v. Kim

577 F.2d 473
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedFebruary 27, 1978
DocketNos. 76-3705, 76-3704, 77-1209, 76-3664, 76-3665, 77-2283 and 77-2320
StatusPublished
Cited by32 cases

This text of 577 F.2d 473 (United States v. Kim) 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. Kim, 577 F.2d 473 (9th Cir. 1978).

Opinion

PER CURIAM:

Appellants appeal from a judgment dismissing their antitrust complaint against Union Oil Company of California (“Union”). The district court concluded that it lacked jurisdiction of the subject matter because the complaint failed to state sufficient facts to demonstrate that the challenged activities had sufficient impact upon the flow of interstate commerce to permit appellants to invoke the Sherman Act, Sections 1 and 2 (15 U.S.C. §§ 1, 2). Appellants contend that the complaint stated more than adequate facts to establish that the acts complained of occurred within the flow of interstate commerce and that those acts which occurred wholly intrastate substantially affected interstate commerce. We agree with the appellants.

Appellants also claim that the district court abused its discretion in issuing unduly restrictive discovery orders and in preventing appellants from amending their complaint to assert cross-claims for fraudulent promises of a sign rental allowance to counter an affirmative defense in the answer. We remand for reconsideration in the light of our disposition of the jurisdictional issue. We dismiss the third contention for mootness.

Appellants operate large volume gasoline service stations in the greater San Francisco Bay Area. Among their holdings are the two service station properties involved in this case, Alec’s in San Jose and Alex’s in Fremont. Appellants’ combined ownership of the two stations in issue, together with other service stations in the area, gave them power to offer to any gasoline supplier outlets for about 13 million gallons of gasoline per year.

In February and March, 1972, appellants began negotiating a gasoline supply contract with Union for delivery to two of their service stations. In April, 1972, Union and appellants executed a gasoline purchase contract for Union brand gasoline to be sold at their San Jose and Fremont stations. The contract provided that appellants would pay the standard “Posted Dealer Purchase Price” for the gasoline, but all parties understood that appellants would shortly be entitled to a two cents per gallon discount on the price, which was to be given by Unión in the form of a sign rental agreement. Appellants were also led to believe that within a few months, they would be entitled to a Union jobbership, if they showed themselves to be satisfactory dealers. The possibility of obtaining the jobber-ship particularly interested appellants and was one of the main inducements to them to undertake dealing with Union.

Appellants began selling Union gasoline at their San Jose and Fremont stations in April, 1972. They priced their gasoline from two to five cents below the prevailing market prices for other major brand gaso-lines in the area. Competing Union dealers complained about the price cutting to Union. Union representatives contacted appellants and urged them to keep their prices within two cents of the prevailing market price. Appellants, however, persisted in their price-cutting practices. Union countered the refusal of appellants to raise their prices by denying appellants’ request for the promised sign rental discount and for the jobbership. Appellants threatened to sue Union for its refusal to bestow the promised benefits, and Union retaliated by invoking the 90-day termination clause on their gasoline supply contract and terminated appellants as Union dealers. Appellants remained in business at the two stations by selling Phillips Petroleum products at the two locations.

Appellants received approximately $35,-000.00 of gasoline from Union on Labor Day weekend, 1972. Union’s representative did not collect $10,000.00 on the Friday before the weekend and did not notify Union’s [470]*470supply terminals. Appellants deducted the amount of sign rental allowances at two cents per gallon from the amount it owed Union for gasoline purchases and advised Union that they would not pay any more, claiming the sign rental allowance as a legitimate offset. Thereafter, appellants paid Union approximately $10,000.00 for gasoline delivered on the Labor Day weekend, and Union filed a collection action in the state court to recover the remaining price. Appellants filed this antitrust action, and Union counterclaimed for goods sold and delivered and for conversion. Appellants sought damages for refusal to pay the two-cent per gallon sign rental allowance, for failure to inform appellants of adjustment in the price of gasoline, for loss of profits in the cancellation of the three-year supply agreement as to the two stations, and for loss of profits arising from the refusal to allow them the jobbérship agreement because of their pricing policies.

The two service stations are located in shopping centers within the borders of California, and neither is adjacent to an interstate highway. Their customers are largely local suburban residents. During 1972, appellants’ combined purchases for both stations varied from a high of 284,512 gallons for the month of May to a low of 273,250 gallons in July. All of the Union gasoline distributed to appellants was refined in California at Union’s Oleum refinery. During 1972, total shipments of gasoline from the Oleum refinery averaged 33,321 barrels per day. From Oleum, the gasoline was shipped via pipeline to San Jose, California, and then trucked from the San Jose terminal to appellants’ stations. Appellants allege that Union, through exchange agreements with other major gasoline suppliers, also mingled out-of-state gasoline in the transporting pipeline. That allegation, however, has not been substantiated through discovery. It is undisputed that large percentages of the raw ingredients used in refining the gasoline are shipped to the Oleum refinery from out of state.

While appellants were Union dealers, they purchased their gasoline under a wholesale pricing system which Union utilized throughout the ten states comprising its Western Region. Under the plan, Union would publish “Posted Dealer Purchase Prices” for a given region. The posted dealer price fluctuated in accordance with the prevailing retail prices charged by major competitors in a given region. Union established a retail price of $.082 above the Posted Dealer Purchase Price as a cut-off point for price supports to its dealers. A retail price of $.082 above the Posted Dealer Purchase Price was defined as the “Adjustment Price.” If the prevailing retail price was less than the Adjustment Price, Union would reduce its Posted Dealer Purchase Price downward to $.007 for each cent per gallon that the prevailing retail price had fallen below the Adjustment Price. Although the Posted Dealer Purchase Price for individual zones within the Western Region would vary, depending on the prevailing competitor retail price in a given zone and the concomitant need for Union to provide its dealers with price supports, the pricing system was standardized throughout the Western Region. Union dealers were required to purchase under this standard wholesale system; however, their purchase contracts did not require them to sell at the retail level at any set prices.

Union is a completely integrated enterprise. Union produces vast quantities of crude oil and natural gas. It has three refineries in California and one in Texas. About one-third of the crude oil utilized by the Union refinery in the Bay Area is shipped from its resources in Alaska. Union also transports crude oil and petroleum products in its own and in leased ships along the seacoast of the West, as well as in foreign commerce.

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Bluebook (online)
577 F.2d 473, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-kim-ca9-1978.