Continental Ore Company v. Union Carbide and Carbon Corporation

Citation82 S.Ct. 1404,370 U.S. 690,8 L.Ed.2d 777
Decision Date25 June 1962
Docket NumberNo. 304,304
PartiesCONTINENTAL ORE COMPANY et al., Petitioners, v. UNION CARBIDE AND CARBON CORPORATION et al
CourtUnited States Supreme Court

Joseph L. Alioto, San Francisco, Cal., for petitioners.

Josiah G. Holland, Denver, Colo., for respondent Vanadium Corp. of America.

Richard J. Archer, San Francisco, Cal., for respondents Union Carbide Corp. and United States Vanadium Corp.

Mr. Justice WHITE delivered the opinion of the Court.

This is a private treble damage action under the anti-trust laws.1 Continental Ore Company, a partnership and its individual partners, who were plaintiffs in the trial court, are petitioners here.2 Henry J. Leir, the principal party in Continental, had engaged in the buying and selling of metals, including vanadium products, in Europe prior to 1938, in which year he immigrated to the United States. This case concerns his subsequent efforts in this country to build a successful business in the production and sale of vanadium.

Vanadium is a metal obtained from certain ores which, in this country, are mined principally on the Colorado plateau. The ore is processed at mills near the mines into a substance commonly known as vanadium oxide. The oxide is then transported to the East and converted into ferrovanadium,3 which is purchased chiefly by steel companies for use as an alloy in hardening steels.

The defendants named in the complaint were Vanadium Corporation of America (VCA), a fully integrated miner and manufacturer of vanadium products, Union Carbide and Carbon Corporation (Carbide), and the following four wholly owned subsidiary corporations of the latter company: United States Vanadium Corporation (USV), engaged in mining vanadium ore and processing vanadium oxide; Electro Metallurgical Company (Electro Met), engaged in making ferrovanadium; Electro Metallurgical Sales Corporation (Electro Met Sales), engaged in the sale of vanadium oxide and ferrovanadium; and Electro Metallurgical Company of Canada, Ltd. (Electro Met of Canada), engaged in selling vanadium products in Canada. The complaint was filed on November 15 1949, and service was had on VCA, Carbide and USV. There was no service on Electro Met, Electro Met Sales or Electro Met of Canada. Carbide acquired the assets of Electro Met and Electro Met Sales by dissolution or merger during the year 1949, prior to the filing of the complaint herein.

The complaint alleged that, beginning in about 1933, the defendants and others acting in concert with them violated §§ 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act4 by conspiring to restrain, by monopolizing, and by attempting and conspiring to monopolize, trade and commerce in ferrovanadium and vanadium oxide. The defendants were charged with purchasing and acquiring control over substantially all accessible vanadium-bearing ore deposits in the United States and substantially all vanadium oxide produced by others in the United States, with refusing to sell vanadium oxide to other potential producers of ferrovanadium, including Continental and its associates, with apportioning and dividing sales of ferrovanadium and vanadium oxide among themselves in certain proportions, with fixing identical prices for the sale of ferrovanadium and vanadium oxide and for the purchase of ore, and with making certain mutual arrangements whereby one or more Carbide subsidiaries supplied VCA with substantial quantities of vanadium oxide at preferential prices to VCA. The complaint stated that between 1933 and 1949 the defendants produced over 99% of all ferrovanadium and over 90% of all vanadium oxide produced in the United States and that during the same period the defendants sold over 99% of the ferrovanadium and vanadium oxide sold in this country.5

According to the complaint, as a proximate consequence of defendants' monopolistic and restrictive practices, independent producers and distributors of ferrovanadium and vanadium oxide, including Continental, were eliminated from the business. Specifically, the complaint detailed several efforts which Continental made to enter and maintain itself in the vanadium business, all of which were allegedly frustrated by defendants' Sherman Act violations: (1) In 1938, Continental negotiated a contract with Apex Smelting Company of Chicago whereby Apex was to build and operate a plant for the conversion of oxide to ferrovanadium by use of the aluminothermic process. Continental and Apex were to share the profits of this venture. On its part, Continental agreed to obtain raw materials for Apex and to sell the finished product. Operations under this contract began in the spring of 1940, but Apex terminated the agreement in 1942 allegedly because the illegal activities of defendants prevented the obtaining of a sufficient supply of vanadium oxide. (2) Meanwhile, Continental itself had begun to produce a compound called 'Van-Ex,' composed of vanadium oxide and other materials, which was designed for direct introduction into the steel-making process without prior conversion to ferrovanadium. This venture was allegedly terminated in 1944 because of the difficulty of securing raw materials caused by defendants' unlawful practices, including the efforts of defendants to obtain ownership or control of the mines and mills of Continental's suppliers. (3) Continental had developed a business with a Canadian customer during 1942. When Electro Met Sales of Canada was appointed by the Canadian Government as the exclusive wartime agent to purchase and allocate vanadium for Canadian industries, that company, it is alleged, acting under the control and direction of its parent, Carbide, eliminated Continental entirely from the Canadian market and divided Continental's business solely between defendants. (4) Defendants in 1943, by open threats of reprisals, allegedly frustrated certain arrangements which Continental had with the Climax Molybdenum Corporation for the manufacture of ferrovanadium. (5) In January 1944, Continental contracted with Imperial Paper & Color Corporation for the processing by the latter of vanadium oxide and ferrovanadium. Continental agreed to act as sales agent for the output. The complaint charged that Imperial abandoned the contract at the end of 1944 because of the inability to secure raw materials and that Continental then left the vanadium business altogether, all as a result of the restrictive and monopolistic practices of the defendants.

Trial was to a jury and a verdict was returned for defendants. Continental appealed, asserting error in the trial court's exclusion of various evidentiary items, in certain of the instructions given to the jury, in the refusal to give other instructions, and in other rulings of the trial court. The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit announced that its task was to review the correctness of the judgment below, not the reasons therefor, and on that basis affirmed the judgment, 289 F.2d 86, holding that there was insufficient evidence to justify a jury find- ing that defendants' illegal acts were in fact the cause of Continental's failure in the vanadium business, and hence, that a verdict for defendants should have been directed. In reaching its decision, the court stated that it had considered not only all the evidence admitted by the trial judge, but also all the evidence offered by the plaintiffs which the trial judge excluded. The court did not deal with or rule upon any of the alleged trial errors relied upon by Continental, except for the issue relating to Continental's alleged exclusion from the Canadian market. Certiorari was granted, limited to issues which required examination in the light of previous decisions of this Court and which presented important questions under the antitrust laws. 368 U.S. 886, 82 S.Ct. 141, 7 L.Ed.2d 87. We have concluded, for the reasons discussed hereafter, that the Court of Appeals' decision must be reversed and the case remanded for a new trial.

I.

The Court of Appeals was, of course, bound to view the evidence in the light most favorable to Continental and to give it the benefit of all inferences which the evidence fairly supports, even though contrary inferences might reasonably be drawn.6 From our examination of the rather extensive record, we have concluded that the Court of Appeals departed from this rule and erred in holding that there was insufficient evidence to support a finding that respondents' conduct in fact caused injury to Continental's business.

Continental's fundamental claim throughout was that inadequate supplies of vanadium oxide were available to it and its associates, and that respondents' alleged Sherman Act violations caused or contributed to this shortage. The Court of Appeals acknowledged the principle in antitrust cases that 'where the plaintiff proves a loss, and a violation by defendant of the antitrust laws of such a nature as to be likely to cause that type of loss, there are cases which say that the jury, as the trier of the facts, must be permitted to draw from this circumstantial evidence the inference that the necessary causal relation exists.'7 The court also assumed that the evidence was adequate to support a jury finding that respondents committed the alleged violations of the Sherman Act and that the specific acts charged to have been done by respondents were performed as part of the basic plan to monopolize the vanadium market. Nor did the court take express issue with the averments that adequate supplies of vanadium oxide were unavailable to Continental during certain periods or with the argument that a shortage of vanadium oxide was the type of consequence that would reasonably be expected to flow from a conspiratorial and monopolistic arrangement controlling 99% of the ferrovanadium and vanadium oxide sold in this country. The court nevertheless concluded, in effect, that before there could be a sufficient showing of any shortage of vanadium oxide, or at least before the jury...

To continue reading

Request your trial
799 cases
  • In re Airport Car Rental Antitrust Litigation, MDL No. 338.
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — Northern District of California
    • April 16, 1981
    ...and press" does not immunize speech or writing that is an integral part of illegal conduct. 15 See also discussion in part III. B., infra. 16Continental Ore Co. v. Union Carbide, 370 U.S. 690, 82 S.Ct. 1404, 8 L.Ed.2d 777 (1962), has been cited as suggesting that the Supreme Court may have ......
  • In re Airport Car Rental Antitrust Litigation
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — Northern District of California
    • June 25, 1979
    ...legal support for this conclusion. See, e. g., City of Lafayette, supra, 435 U.S. at 399-400 n.17, 98 S.Ct. 1123; Continental Ore Co., supra, 370 U.S. at 707-708, 82 S.Ct. 1404; Subscription T.V. v. Southern Cal. Theatre Owners, 576 F.2d 230, 233 (9 Cir. 1978); Kurek, supra, 557 F.2d at 593......
  • Rea v. Ford Motor Company, Civ. A. No. 67-286.
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Pennsylvania
    • January 30, 1973
    ...after scrutiny of each segment. The court has held the jury should look at the whole picture. Continental Ore Co. v. Union Carbide Corp., 370 U.S. 690, 82 S.Ct. 1404, 8 L.Ed.2d 777 (1962); Lessig v. Tidewater Oil Co., supra. As a matter of fact, many of defendant's arguments must fail becau......
  • In re Dealer Mgmt. Sys. Antitrust Litig.
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — Northern District of Illinois
    • January 21, 2022
    ...have been caused by which acts has not been required." MCI , 708 F.2d at 1161 (citing Continental Ore Co. v. Union Carbide & Carbon Corp. , 370 U.S. 690, 699, 82 S.Ct. 1404, 8 L.Ed.2d 777 (1962) ; Story Parchment Co. v. Paterson Parchment Paper Co. , 282 U.S. 555, 51 S.Ct. 248, 75 L.Ed. 544......
  • Request a trial to view additional results
1 firm's commentaries
  • Plus Factors in Price-Fixing Litigation
    • United States
    • LexBlog United States
    • November 24, 2021
    ...in many cases. This undermines deterrence of price fixing and destabilizes this cornerstone of American antitrust law. ENDNOTES [1] 370 U.S. 690, 699 (1962) (quoting Am. Tobacco Co. v. United States, 147 F.2d 93, 106 (6th Cir. 1944)). [2] Christopher R. Leslie, The Probative Synergy of Plus......
35 books & journal articles
  • Table of Cases
    • United States
    • ABA Antitrust Library Proving Antitrust Damages. Legal and Economic Issues. Third Edition Part III
    • December 8, 2017
    ...303 Continental Airlines v. United Airlines, 277 F.3d 499 (4th Cir. 2002), 28, 101 Continental Ore Co. v. Union Carbide & Carbon Corp., 370 U.S. 690 (1962), 12, 15 Continental TV v. GTE Sylvania, 433 U.S. 36 (1977), 252 Continental-Wirt Elecs. Corp. v. Lancaster Glass Corp., 459 F.2d 768 (3......
  • United States Law and the Proposed Code of Conduct on the Transfer of Technology
    • United States
    • Antitrust Bulletin No. 23-4, December 1978
    • December 1, 1978
    ...sovereign merelypermits or encourages anticompetitive practices the defense isnot available. ContinentalOreCo.v.UnionCarbide&CarbonCorp.,370 U.S. 690(1962);UnitedStates v. Watchmakers of 888 THE ANTITRUST BULLETINSwitzerland Information Center, Inc., 1963 Trade Cas.(CCH)'70,600(S.D.N.Y.1962......
  • Demystifying antitrust state action doctrine.
    • United States
    • Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy Vol. 24 No. 1, September 2000
    • September 22, 2000
    ...Allied Tube relied on Goldfarb v. Virginia State Bar, 421 U.S. 773 (1975), and Continental Ore Co. v. Union Carbide & Carbon Corp., 370 U.S. 690 (1962), cases in which the defendants had official state recognition but were nonetheless subject to antitrust liability, and therefore offici......
  • Standard Setting by Governmental or Quasi-Governmental Bodies
    • United States
    • ABA Antitrust Library Handbook on the Antitrust Aspects of Standard Setting
    • January 1, 2011
    ...market oil). 149. 694 F.2d 1358 (5th Cir. 1983). 150. Id. at 1364. 151. Id. at 1373; cf. Cont’l Ore Co. v. Union Carbide & Carbon Corp., 370 U.S. 690 (1962) (implying Noerr immunity would be available for petitioning foreign governments, except not available in that case because the governm......
  • 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