Blumenstock Bros Advertising Agency v. Curtis Pub Co, 197
| Decision Date | 19 April 1920 |
| Docket Number | No. 197,197 |
| Citation | 40 S.Ct. 385,64 L.Ed. 649,252 U.S. 436 |
| Parties | BLUMENSTOCK BROS. ADVERTISING AGENCY v. CURTIS PUB. CO |
| Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
[Syllabus intentionally omitted]
Mr. Colin C. H. Fyffe, of Chicago, Ill., for plaintiff in error.
Mr. Amos C. Miller, of Williamsport, Pa., for defendant in error.
This suit was brought by the Blumenstock Bros. Advertising Agency against the Curtis Publishing Company in the District Court of the United States for the Northern District of Illinois to recover treble damages under section 7 of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act (26 Stat. 209 [Comp. St. § 8829]). The case here concerns the question of the jurisdiction of the District Court. Judicial Code, § 238. The plaintiff is a corporation of the state of Missouri; the defendant a corporation of the state of Pennsylvania. The defendant appeared specially in the District Court and moved to dismiss the complaint for want of jurisdiction; the grounds stated being:
(1) 'That in each of the counts of plaintiff's original declaration, and in the additional count thereof, it appears that the plaintiff is a citizen and resident of the state of Missouri, and that this defendant is a citizen and resident of the state of Pennsylvania.'
(2) 'That in none of said counts is a cause of action stated by plaintiff within the provisions of the act of Congress approved July 2, 1890, entitled 'An Act to protect trade and commerce against unlawful restraints and monopolies."
The court entered judgment dismissing the suit for want of jurisdiction over the defendant or the action.
The record contains a certificate stating that the court found that it had no jurisdiction of the defendant and no jurisdiction to entertain the action. The certificate further states that the question involved is whether the transaction set forth in the several counts of the declaration involves a question of interstate commerce, and whether the averments in said several counts of the declaration state a cause of action within the provisions of the Act of July 2, 1890 (Comp. St. §§ 8820-8823, 8827-8830).
The declaration is voluminous, containing five counts and an additional count. So far as it is necessary for our purpose, the cause of action of the plaintiff may be said to rest upon the allegations: That the plaintiff is engaged at Chicago in conducting an advertising agency. That when customers or principals desire to place advertisements in the magazines and periodicals of the trade they make plaintiff their agent, and plaintiff contracts with the defendant and other publishers and distributors of magazines; that plaintiff had many customers with whom it placed advertisements in the periodicals published and distributed by the defendant and in other periodicals of other publishers, all of which were distributed throughout the United States and the several states thereof; that the defendant was the owner and publisher of three periodicals sold and distributed throughout the United States, known as the Saturday Evening Post, the Ladies Home Journal, and the Country Gentleman; that the business of the defendant in publishing, selling, and distributing said periodicals was interstate commerce. The character of each of the several publications is described, and a large circulation is attributed to each of them; and it is stated that in publishing and distributing said periodicals defendant held itself out as desirous of taking, receiving, printing, publishing, and distributing throughout the United States its publications and advertisements to persons, firms, and corporations concerning their business and occupation; that in the course of the business the defendant dealt with the plaintiff and other advertising agencies; that the defendant in the regular course of its business dealt with not only advertisers, but with advertising agencies such as the plaintiff, and it is alleged that such dealings were transaci ons of interstate commerce, and that the business of editing, publishing and distributing throughout the United States the advertising matter contained in said publications, pursuant to contracts made with its customers and advertising agencies was interstate commerce; that such commerce is dependent for its operation and growth upon advertising facilities offered by magazines and periodicals such as those of the defendant, and that such publications constitute the chief method of presenting to the buying public the articles held out for sale; that the advertising facilities were necessary to dealers, merchants, and manufacturers in order to bring their products to the notice and attention of purchasers; that the defendant's periodicals, particularly 'The Saturday Evening Post,' have an important position among such publications, and are largely read throughout the United States; that 'The Saturday Evening Post' is the most necessary of such advertising mediums to the customers of the plaintiff; that the defendant's periodicals, together with certain other magazines, periodicals and publications owned by persons other than the defendant, had, to a certain extent, exclusive control of a certain field of advertising; that the magazines and other publications which control and do all the advertising business of the field in question are few in number; that for the advertising of goods and merchandise offered for sale in commerce there were no adequate facilities except those offered by the defendant and other publishers of similar magazines; that the defendant was desirous of using its preponderant position in this special field of advertising as a means of acquiring for itself and its publications, especially for 'The Saturday Evening Post,' a monopoly of the publication and distribution of advertising matter in this restricted field of advertising throughout the United States in violation of the Anti-Trust Act; that the defendant refused without any reasonable cause to accept proper and ordinary advertising matter or copy offered in the usual way to the defendant by the plaintiff and other advertising agencies unless the plaintiff, and other advertising agencies, would agree to allow the defendant to increase crease its preponderance in said advertising field by permitting it to control and limit and reduce, at the will of the defendant, the amount of advertising given by the plaintiff and other advertising agencies to the owners and publishers of other magazines, journals, periodicals and other publications aforesaid, which were competing with the defendant in the field of advertising mentioned and described; that by reason of the illegal and wrongful acts, done by the defendant in pursuance of its attempt and scheme to create a monopoly for its own benefit in, and to monopolize the advertising business, plaintiff lost the...
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