Delz v. Winfree

• Decision Date: 24 March 1891
• Citation: 16 S.W. 111
• Parties: DELZ v. WINFREE <I>et al.</I><SMALL><SUP>1</SUP></SMALL>
• Court: Texas Supreme Court

16 S.W. 111

DELZ v. WINFREE et al.¹

Supreme Court of Texas.

March 24, 1891.

Error from district court, Galveston county.

L. E. Trezevant, for plaintiff in error. Forster Rose, for defendant in error.

HENRY, J.

This suit was brought to recover damages by Bernard Delz against the members of the firm of Winfree, Norman & Pearson, and the members of the firm of Borden & Borden. Plaintiff's petition stated his cause of action as follows: That he was pursuing the occupation of a butcher in the city of Galveston, and was making, and would have continued to make, large profits and gains in the business, but for the grievances committed by the defendants, as alleged; that in the prosecution of his business he had opened and was conducting two butcher-shops in said city for the sale of different kinds of fresh meat; that it became necessary that he should buy live animals suitable and fit to be slaughtered for the purposes of his business as a butcher, and for a long time before and at the time of the commission by defendants of the grievances herein stated, he was engaged in the business of buying live animals suitable and fit to be slaughtered, and sold as fresh butcher's meat, and which he slaughtered and sold as such at his said two butcher-shops; that the persons from whom plaintiff bought said live animals were engaged in the business of transporting to Galveston, and receiving for sale, live animals suitable and fit to be slaughtered and sold as butcher's meat, and in selling such live animals for such purposes to whomsoever would buy that long before and at the time of the commission by defendants of the wrongs herein charged the defendants were engaged, and are now engaged, as separate firms, in said business of receiving and selling live animals for the purposes aforesaid, on Galveston island, and were, and are now, the only persons or associations of persons so engaged in said business in Galveston county; that without justifiable cause, and unlawfully, and with the malicious intent to molest, obstruct, hinder, and prevent plaintiff from carrying on his said business, and making a living thereby, the said Winfree, Norman & Pearson, on or about the 1st day of July, 1879, and at divers times thereafter, and until the filing of this petition, did combine, confederate, and conspire with said firm of Borden & Borden, and with one Gerhard Barbour, a butcher, not to sell to petitioner for cash any live animals or slaughtered meat for the purposes or for the prosecution of his said business; that the said Winfree, Norman & Pearson solicited and procured from said Borden & Borden an agreement not to sell any live animals to plaintiff, and did so induce said Gerhard Barbour, and others, to plaintiff unknown, not to sell to him slaughtered meat for the purposes of his said business. The petition charges that, in pursuance of said combination, each of said firms subsequently refused to sell plaintiff live animals when he applied to them to purchase them at their own price, in money, which he then offered to pay them, and that said Gerhard Barbour likewise refused to sell him slaughtered meat; that, by reason of such unlawful combination and malicious interference with his business, plaintiff was compelled to close up and discontinue his business in one of his two shops, and, in order to continue it at the other one of his shops, he has been and is now forced to buy slaughtered meat at a...