Armco Steel Corporation v. ADAMS COUNTY, NORTH DAKOTA

Decision Date11 April 1967
Docket NumberNo. 18153.,18153.
Citation376 F.2d 212
PartiesARMCO STEEL CORPORATION, Appellant, v. ADAMS COUNTY, NORTH DAKOTA et al., Appellees.
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

William R. Pearce, of Pearce, Engebretson, Murray & Anderson, Bismarck, N. D., for appellant and filed printed brief.

David L. Milhollan, Bismarck, N. D., for appellees Adams County, and others and filed brief with Albert A. Wolf, Bismarck, N. D.

Before JOHNSEN, Senior Circuit Judge, BLACKMUN, Circuit Judge, and YOUNG, District Judge.

JOHNSEN, Senior Circuit Judge.

This appeal is from the treble-damage judgments rendered in favor of six Counties of the State of North Dakota in an action brought by them under 15 U.S. C.A. § 15, (with joinder as plaintiffs being engaged in under the provisions of Rule 20(a) Fed.Rules Civ.Proc., 28 U. S.C.A.) to recover for the injuries sustained by each of them from violation by Armco Steel Corporation1 of the provisions of Section 1 of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, 15 U.S.C.A. § 1.

The amounts of the treble damages awarded were as follows: Adams County $6,327; Dunn County $17,319; Emmons County $21,846; Grand Forks County $28,089; Logan County $3,552; Morton County $11,316.

The violation alleged and found by the jury to have existed was a conspiracy on the part of Armco and three North Dakota fabricators and suppliers to fix uniform prices on corrugated culverts, and the recovery basis relied on was the effect of these artificial prices upon the cost to the Counties in their purchases of such culverts for local road-work purposes during the years 1957-1960.

The conspiracy and Armco's criminal conviction thereof have been discussed in No. 18,130, Armco Steel Corporation v. State of North Dakota, 376 F.2d 206, decided concurrently herewith, and will not be made the subject of general repetition in this opinion. The only question necessary to be considered here is Armco's contention that the evidence was insufficient to show that the Counties had been damaged by the conspiracy.

The judgment of conviction against Armco was, as held in the State of North Dakota case, supra, prima facie evidence of the existence of the conspiracy and of its application to corrugated culverts generally in the State during the conspiracy period. Beyond this, there was specific proof as to the general uniformity of the bids submitted by the conspirators to a County for supplying it with corrugated culverts and of the conformity of these bids with the list price which Armco had set. And as in the State of North Dakota case, supra, there was sufficient probative basis for the jury to find that this conformity was not mere individual price parallelism, but came about from the suppliers' common use of Armco's list price, in understanding and accord among them, to avoid having the general price levels disrupted, as Armco had threatened to do if any of them engaged in departure from the list price.

The method used by the Counties in purchasing corrugated culverts was for each County to call for "bids" or submission by suppliers at the beginning of a calendar year of the prices at which they would provide it with whatever quantities of such culverts, in their varying sizes, it might desire to purchase during the course of that year, and for the County to accept the lowest "bid". Where there were identical "bids", as would be the...

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2 cases
  • Armco Steel Corporation v. State of North Dakota
    • United States
    • U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit
    • April 11, 1967
  • Armco Steel Corporation v. BURLEIGH COUNTY, NORTH DAKOTA
    • United States
    • U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit
    • April 11, 1967
    ...D. Before JOHNSEN, Senior Circuit Judge, BLACKMUN, Circuit Judge, and YOUNG, District Judge. PER CURIAM. This, like Armco Steel Corp. v. Adams County, 8 Cir., 376 F.2d 212, decided concurrently herewith, is an appeal by Armco from the separate treble-damage judgments rendered in favor of a ......
2 books & journal articles
  • Table of Cases
    • United States
    • ABA Antitrust Library Antitrust Evidence Handbook
    • January 1, 2016
    ...Cir. 2003), 12 Arkansas Game & Fish Comm’n v. United States, 736 F.3d 1364 (Fed. Cir. 2013), 210 Armco Steel Corp. v. Adams County, N.D., 376 F.2d 212 (8th Cir. 1967), 257 Armstrong v. Guccione, 470 F.3d 89 (2d Cir. 2006), 141 Arnott v. Am. Oil Co., 609 F.2d 873 (8th Cir. 1980), 73 Aspen Ti......
  • Collateral Estoppel and Prima Facie Effect
    • United States
    • ABA Antitrust Library Antitrust Evidence Handbook
    • January 1, 2016
    ...Act and that a guilty plea is prima facie evidence of a violation of the antitrust laws. See Armco Steel Corp. v. Adams County, N.D., 376 F.2d 212, 213 (8th Cir. 1967); Gen. Elec. Co. v. San Antonio, 334 F.2d 480, 487 (5th Cir. 1964) (“We agree with the conclusions reached by the 7th and 9t......

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