Deitrich Loewe Et Al v. Martin Lawlor Et Al 389

Decision Date03 February 1908
Citation52 L.Ed. 488,28 S.Ct. 301,13 Ann. Cas. 815,208 U.S. 274
PartiesDEITRICH LOEWE ET AL. v. MARTIN LAWLOR ET AL. No 389
CourtU.S. Supreme Court

Messrs. James M. Beck and Daniel Davenport for Loewe et al.

[Argument of Counsel from pages 275-280 intentionally omitted] Messrs.John Kimberly Beach, John H. Light, Robert De Forest, and Howard W. Taylor for Lawlor et al.

[Argument of Counsel from pages 280-283 intentionally omitted] Mr. Thomas Carl Spelling for the American Federation of Labor, et al.

Mr. Chief Justice Fuller delivered the opinion of the court:

This was an action brought in the circuit court for the district of Connecticut under § 7 of the anti-trust act of July 2, 1890 [26 Stat. at L. 210, chap. 647, U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, p. 3202], claiming threefold damages for injuries inflicted on plaintiffs by combination or conspiracy declared to be unlawful by the act.

Defendants filed a demurrer to the complaint, assigning general and special grounds. The demurrer was sustained as to the first six paragraphs, which rested on the ground that the combination stated was not within the Sherman act, and this rendered it unnecessary to pass upon any other questions in the case; and, upon plaintiffs declining to amend their complaint, the court dismissed it with costs. 148 Fed. 924; and see 142 Fed. 216, 130 Fed. 633.

The case was then carried by writ of error to the circuit court of appeals for the second circuit, and that court, desiring the instruction of this court upon a question arising on the writ or error, certified that question to this court. The certificate consisted of a brief statement of facts, and put the question thus: 'Upon this state of facts can plaintiffs maintain an action against defendants under § 7 of the anti-trust act of July 2, 1890?'

After the case on certificate had been docketed here, plaintiffs in error applied, and defendants in error joined in the application, to this court to require the whole record and cause to be sent up for its consideration. The application was granted, and the whole record and cause being thus brought before this court, it devolved upon the court, under § 6 of the judiciary act of 1891, to 'decide the whole matter in controversy in the same manner as if it had been brought there for review by writ of error or appeal.' [26 Stat. at L. 828, chap. 517, U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, p. 550.]

The case comes up, then, on complaint and demurrer, and we give the complaint in the margin.1

The question is whether, upon the facts therein averred and admitted by the demurrer, this action can be maintained under the anti-trust act.

The 1st, 2d, and 7th sections of that act are as follows:

'1. Every contract, combination in the form of trust or otherwise, or conspiracy, in restraint of trade or commerce among the several states, or with foreign nations, is hereby declared to be illegal. Every person who shall make any such contract or engage in any such combination or conspiracy shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and, on conviction thereof, shall be punished by fine not exceeding five thousand dollars, or by imprisonment not exceeding one year, or by both said punishments, in the discretion of the court.

'2. Every person who shall monopolize, or attempt to monopolize, or combine or conspire with any other person or persons to monopolize, any part of the trade or commerce among the several states or with foreign nations, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction thereof shall be punished by fine not exceeding five thousand dollars, or by imprisonment not exceeding one year, or by both said punishments, in the discretion of the court.'

'7. Any person who shall be injured in his business or property by any other person or corporation by reason of anything forbidden or declared to be unlawful by this act may sue therefor in any circuit court of the United States in the district in which the defendant resides or is found, without respect to the amount in controversy, and shall recover three fold the damages by him sustained, and the costs of suit, including a reasonable attorney's fee.'

merce between them, and to prevent the plaintiffs from selling their hats to wholesale dealers and purchasers in said states other than Connecticut, and to prevent said dealers and customers in said other states from buying the same, and to prevent the plaintiffs from obtaining orders for their hats from such customers, and filling the same, and shipping said hats to said customers in said states as aforesaid, and thereby injure the plaintiffs in their property and business, and to render unsalable the product and output of their said factory, so the subject of interstate commerce, in whosoever's hands the same might be or come, through said interstate trade and commerce, and to employ as means to carry out said combination and conspiracy and the purposes thereof, and accomplish the same, the following measures and acts, viz.:

'To cause, by means of threats and coercion, and without warning or information to the plaintiffs, the concerted and simultaneous withdrawal of all the makers and finishers of hats then working for them, who were not members of their said combination, the United Hatters of North America, as well as those who were such members, and thereby cripple the operation of the plaintiffs' factory, and prevent the plaintiffs from filling a large number of orders then on hand, from such wholesale dealers in states other than Connecticut, which they had engaged to fill and were then in the act of filling, as was well known to the defendants; in connection therewith to declare a boycott against all hats made for sale and sold and delivered, or to be sold or delivered, by the plaintiffs to said wholesale dealers in states other than Connecticut, and to actively boycott the same and the business of those who should deal in them, and thereby prevent the sale of the same by those in whose hands they might be or come through said interstate trade in said several states; to procure and cause others of said combinations united with them in said American Federation of Labor, in like manner to declare a boycott against and to actively boycott the same and the business of such wholesale dealers as should buy or sell them, and of those who should purchase them from such wholesale dealers; to intimidate such wholesale dealers from purchasing or dealing in the hats of the plaintiff by informing them that the American Federation of Labor had declared a boycott against the product of the plaintiffs and against any dealer who should handle it, and that the same was to be actively pressed against them, and by distributing circulars containing notices that such dealers and their customers were to be boycotted; to threaten with a boycott those customers who should buy any goods whatever, even though union-made, of such boycotted dealers, and at the same time to notify such wholesale dealers that they were at liberty to deal in the hats of any other nonunion manufacturer of similar quality to those made by the plaintiffs, but must not deal in the hats made by the In our opinion, the combination described in the declaration is a combination 'in restraint of trade or commerce among the several states,' in the sense in which those words are used in the act, and the action can be maintained accordingly.

And that conclusion rests on many judgments of this court, to the effect that the act prohibits any combination whatever to secure action which essentially obstructs the free flow of commerce between the states, or restricts, in that regard, the liberty of a trader to engage in business.

The combination charged falls within the class of restraints of trade aimed at compelling third parties and strangers involuntarily not to engage in the course of trade except on conditions that the combination imposes; and there is no doubt that (to quote from the well-known work of Chief Justice Erle on Trade Unions) 'at common law every person has individually, and the public also has collectively, a right to require that the course of trade should be kept free from unreasonable obstruction.' But the objection here is to the jurisdiction, because, even conceding that the declaration states a case good at common law, it is contended that it does not state one within the statute. Thus, it is said that the restraint alleged would operate to entirely destroy plaintiffs' business and thereby include intrastate trade as well; that physical obstruc- tion is not alleged as contemplated; and that defendants are not themselves engaged in interstate trade.

We think none of these objections are tenable, and that they are disposed of by previous decisions of this court.

United States v. Trans-Missouri Freight Asso. 166 U. S. 290, 41 L. ed. 1007, 17 Sup. Ct. Rep. 540; United States v. Joint Traffic Asso. 171 U. S. 505, 43 L. ed. 259, 19 Sup. Ct. Rep. 25; and Northern Securities Co. v. United States, 193 U. S. 197, 48 L. ed. 679, 24 Sup. Ct. Rep. 436, hold, in effect, that the anti-trust law has a broader application than the prohibition of restraints of trade unlawful at common law. Thus, in the Trans-Missouri Case it was said that, 'assuming that agreements of this nature are not void at common law, and that the various cases cited by the learned courts below show it, the answer to the statement of their validity now is to be found in the terms of the statute under consideration;' and, in the Northern Securities Case, that the act declares 'illegal every contract, combination, or conspiracy, in whatever form, of whatever nature, and whoever may be parties to it, which directly or necessarily operates in restraint of trade or commerce among the several states.'

We do not pause to comment on cases such as United States v. E. C. Knight Co. 156 U. S. 1, 39 L. ed. 325, 15 Sup. Ct. Rep. 249; Hopkins v. United States, 171 U. S. 578, 43 L. ed. 290, 19 Sup. Ct. Rep. 40; and Anderson v. United...

To continue reading

Request your trial
235 cases
  • Messner v. Journeymen Barbers, Hairdressers and Cosmetologists, Intern. Union of America, Local 256
    • United States
    • California Supreme Court
    • April 7, 1960
    ...preceding adoption of the Sherman Act, an amendment exempting labor unions was offered and rejected; see Loewe v. Lawlor (1908), 208 U.S. 274, 301, 28 S.Ct. 301, 52 L.Ed. 488. the Danbury Hatters' case). And probably the dangers of combinations among businessmen and organized labor to restr......
  • County Sanitation Dist. No. 2 v. Los Angeles County Employees' Assn.
    • United States
    • California Supreme Court
    • May 13, 1985
    ...(1910) p. 59; Walker v. Cronin (1871) 107 Mass. 555; Vegelahn v. Guntner (1896) 167 Mass. 92, 44 N.E. 1077; Loewe v. Lawlor (1908) 208 U.S. 274, 28 S.Ct. 301, 52 L.Ed. 488.6 Congress gradually, through a series of legislative enactments, not only granted private sector employees a right to ......
  • State v. Local 1115 Joint Bd., Nursing Home and Hospital Emp. Division
    • United States
    • New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division
    • March 14, 1977
    ...states (p. 179):'Debs had become convinced while in jail that the cause of labor was hopeless under capitalism.'3 Loewe v. Lawlor, 208 U.S. 274, 28 S.Ct. 301, 52 L.Ed. 488.4 120 Cong.Rec. 4589, 4590 (Daily Ed., May 30, 1974).5 120 Cong.Rec. S6991 (Daily Ed., May 2, 1974).6 The NLRB, on Janu......
  • National Labor Relations Board v. Jones Laughlin Steel Corporation
    • United States
    • U.S. Supreme Court
    • April 12, 1937
    ...the same principle, the Anti-Trust Act has been applied to the conduct of employees engaged in production. Loewe v. Lawlor, 208 U.S. 274, 28 S.Ct. 301, 52 L.Ed. 488, 13 Ann.Cas. 815; Coronado Coal Co. v. United Mine Workers, supra; Bedford Cut Stone Co. v. Stone Cutters' Association, 274 U.......
  • Request a trial to view additional results
14 books & journal articles
  • Labor Unions: Saviors or Scourges?
    • United States
    • Capital University Law Review No. 41-1, January 2013
    • December 1, 2013
    ...generally Harry Shulman, Reason, Contract, and Law in Labor Relations , 68 HARV. L. REV. 999, 1000–02 (1955). 67 Id. 68 Id. at 1001. 69 208 U.S. 274 (1908). 70 Id. at 306–08. The aftermath of this case sustained the collection of monetary damages from union members who supported the boycott......
  • Table of Cases
    • United States
    • ABA Antitrust Library Agriculture and Food Handbook
    • January 1, 2019
    ...Jewel Tea Co., 381 U.S. 676 (1965), 8 1 Lockwood v. ConAgra Foods, 597 F. Supp. 2d 1028 (N.D. Cal. 2009), 251, 256, 267 Loewe v. Lawlor, 208 U.S. 274 (1907), 109, 110, 111 London v. Fieldale Farms Corp., 410 F.3d 1295 (11th Cir. 2005), 78, 79, 89, 90 Louisa Coca-Cola Bottling v. Pepsi-Cola ......
  • The Capper-Volstead Act and Defenses
    • United States
    • ABA Antitrust Library Agriculture and Food Handbook
    • January 1, 2019
    ...5 Sherman, however, later said that he “d[id] not think it necessary” to add the 1. 7 U.S.C. §§ 291-292. 2. See generally Loewe v. Lawlor, 208 U.S. 274, 301(1907). 3. See, e.g. , 21 Cong. Rec. 2731 (1890). 4. Id. 5. Id . at 2611. 106 Agriculture and Food Handbook amendment, 6 and the amendm......
  • Antitrust and Organized Labor
    • United States
    • ABA Antitrust Library Handbook on the Scope of Antitrust Issues of sector-wide applicability
    • January 1, 2015
    ...in Duplex Printing Press Co. v. Deering, 8 an employer sought an injunction to stop a union boycott. 4. See, e.g., Loewe v. Lawlor, 208 U.S. 274, 304 (1908). 5. 15 U.S.C. § 17. 6. 29 U.S.C. § 52. 7. Id. 8. 254 U.S. 443 (1921). Antitrust and Organized Labor 195 The Court held that the immuni......
  • Request a trial to view additional results

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT