Golden Gate Acceptance Corp. v. General Motors Corp.

• Decision Date: 23 May 1979
• Docket Number: No. 78-3413,78-3413
• Parties: , 1979-1 Trade Cases 62,711 GOLDEN GATE ACCEPTANCE CORP., and Fred Kohlenberg, Appellants, v. GENERAL MOTORS CORP., Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

Page 676

597 F.2d 676

50 A.L.R.Fed. 236, 1979-1 Trade Cases 62,711

GOLDEN GATE ACCEPTANCE CORP., and Fred Kohlenberg, Appellants, v. GENERAL MOTORS CORP., Appellee.

No. 78-3413.

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

May 23, 1979.

Eli Freed, Freed & Freed, San Francisco, Cal., for appellants.

Martin Anderson, McCutchen, Doyle, Brown & Emersen, San Francisco, Cal., for appellee.

On Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.

Before BARNES and HUG, Circuit Judges.

BARNES, Senior Circuit Judge:

I. FACTS

In January of 1974, appellants Golden Gate Acceptance Corporation, the alleged successor in interest to Kohlenberg Cadillac, Inc. (the "Dealership"), and Fred Kohlenberg ("Kohlenberg") brought suit against General Motors Corporation ("GM") stemming from GM's termination of the Dealership's Cadillac franchise in February of 1971. Appellants charged that the termination was in violation of (1) the terms of the "Cadillac Dealer Sales and Service Agreement" ("Agreement") entered into between GM and the Dealership, (2) the Automobile Dealer Franchise Act (15 U.S.C. §§ 1221-1225), and (3) the Sherman Antitrust Act (15 U.S.C. §§ 1 and 2). After two years of discovery by the parties, the district court granted GM's motion for summary judgment.

The controversy between the parties herein centers upon the attempted relocation of the Dealership from its premises at 1000 Van Ness Avenue (the "Premises") to nearby locations. GM initially owned the Premises but sold it to Kohlenberg pursuant to a concomitant arrangement whereby a Cadillac franchise was granted to the Dealership, said franchise grant being conditioned upon the continued operation of the Dealership at the Premises. Kohlenberg owned the stock of and controlled the Dealership. He likewise controlled the Winfield Scott Corporation ("Winfield") in which title to the Premises was vested upon its purchase from GM. ¹

According to the Agreement in effect during the controversy, ² the location of the franchise was expressly delineated as a very important element of the bargain between the parties. In particular, Section 5B of the Agreement provided, Inter alia, that:

. . . in order that Cadillac may establish and maintain an effective network of franchised Cadillac dealers for the sale and service of Cadillac motor vehicles, Dealer shall not, either directly or indirectly, establish any place or places of business for the conduct of any of its Dealership Operations except at the locations and for the purposes described in a current Statement of Dealership Premises. . . .

Within two months of entering into the Agreement, Kohlenberg informed GM that he intended to move the Dealership operations to different locations near to the Premises. Shortly thereafter, GM was notified that the Premises had been rented to the Ford Motor Company ("Ford"). GM had previously discussed the matter with Kohlenberg and warned him that it would terminate the Agreement if the Dealership was moved to a new location without GM's approval and the Premises transferred to any third party. Upon notice of the lease of the Premises to Ford, GM terminated the Agreement effective on the commencement of the lease to Ford.

II. DISCUSSION

A. Standard of Review

As recently stated by this court in Yazzie v. Olney, Levy, Kaplan & Tenner, 593 F.2d 100, 102 (9th Cir. 1979):

Under Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c), summary judgment is proper only where there is no genuine issue of any material fact or where, viewing the evidence and the inferences which may be drawn therefrom in the light most favorable to the adverse party, the movant is clearly entitled to prevail as a matter of law. . . . Our role in reviewing the grant of summary judgment is to determine whether there is any genuine issue of material fact underlying the adjudication and, if not, whether the substantive law was correctly applied. (Citations omitted.)

Accord, Adickes v. S. H. Kress & Co., 398 U.S. 144, 157, 90 S.Ct. 1598, 26 L.Ed.2d 142 (1970). ³

B. Antitrust Claims

The basis of appellants' antitrust claims is that GM conspired with Olsen Chevrolet ("Olsen") whereby GM would terminate its exclusive territorial franchise agreement with the Dealership "without cause" and substitute Olsen in its place. No allegation or evidence as to an adverse effect upon competition was presented by appellants other than the fact that one distributor would be replaced by another.

It has been consistently held in this circuit that it is not a violation of the Sherman Act for a manufacturer to conspire with others to simply switch distributors at one of its exclusive franchises and to cease doing business with a former dealer. Dreibus v. Wilson, 529 F.2d 170, 172 (9th Cir. 1975); Alpha Distrib. Co. of Cal., Inc. v. Jack Daniel Distillery,454 F.2d 442, 452 (9th Cir. 1972); Joseph E. Seagram & Sons, Inc. v. Hawaiian Oke & Liquors, Ltd., 416 F.2d 71, 76 (9th Cir. 1969), Cert. denied, 396 U.S. 1062, 90 S.Ct. 752, 24 L.Ed.2d 755 (1970); Cf., Marquis v. Chrysler Corp., 577 F.2d 624, 639-41 (9th Cir. 1978); Accord, Fray Chevrolet Sales, Inc. v. General Motors Corp., 536 F.2d 683, 686 (6th Cir. 1976) (involving a similar GM franchise agreement). Thus, as a matter of law, the appellants' antitrust charges in their complaint failed to state a claim under the Sherman Act. ⁴ Moreover, it is clear from the record below that, even given the requisite presumptions in appellants' favor, GM's termination of the Agreement was caused directly and justifiably by Kohlenberg's and the Dealership's breach of the Agreement. ⁵ Consequently, the district court's grant of summary judgment as to the antitrust claims was proper.

C. Breach of Contract Claims

Initially, it is noted that, despite appellants' contentions to the contrary, the location provisions of the Agreement are definitely unambiguous and were violated by Kohlenberg's and the Dealership's attempts to conduct franchise operations at sites other than the Premises or those approved by GM. However, we do agree with the appellants that the Agreement is ambiguous as to whether such a violation, by itself, would give GM the right to immediately terminate the Agreement.

Section 11B of the Agreement, which delineates those acts or events which are so contrary to the spirit of the Agreement "as to warrant its termination", does not include in its ten subparagraphs any direct reference to the act of relocating the franchise operations. Such a move, without GM's approval, undoubtedly violates Section 5B of the Agreement and arguably the primary objectives of the contract as described in its "General Purpose" Section. However, Section 11C of the Agreement specifically covers non-performances by a dealer's failure to "fulfill its responsibilities or obligations as to Dealership Locations and Premises under provisions of Section 5 of this Agreement." GM's recourse for violations under Section 11C would be to terminate the Agreement but only if the violation continued for six months and thereafter only upon written notice. Thus, the appellants argue that, despite their breach, GM also violated the franchise contract by immediately terminating the Agreement rather than waiting the requisite six months.

Nevertheless, the record reveals that GM's justification for the immediate termination was based not solely upon the attempted relocation of the Dealership, but primarily upon the leasing of the Premises to Ford. According to Section 11B, subparagraph 6:

The following represent acts or events that originate at or with Dealer or its Dealer Operators or Owners and over which Cadillac has no control but which are so contrary to the spirit, nature, purposes or objectives of this Agreement as to warrant its termination:

(6) . . . any sale or transfer, by operation of law or otherwise, to any third party or parties of the principal assets of Dealer that are required for the conduct of Dealership Operations.

Kohlenberg was listed in the Agreement as both "Owner" and "Dealer Operator". The Premises was a "principal asset" required for the conduct of the Dealership Operations since the Agreement specifically limited GM's grant of the franchise to the Dealership for the contract period so long as it operated at the Premises. Likewise, the transfer definitely "originated at or with" the "Dealer Operator" (Kohlenberg). Appellants claim that the Premises was owned by Winfield and thus the lease to Ford did not effect an "asset of the Dealer". However, in the Agreement, Winfield is delineated as being "Wholly owned by dealer". Moreover, it is undisputed that Winfield held the property merely as an agent for Kohlenberg and that Kohlenberg was the owner and operator of the Dealership, both in fact and within the coverage of Section 11B. Alternatively, the lease of the Premises to Ford clearly constituted a transfer of the Dealership's right to conduct its operations at the agreed location. By failing to secure an approved site prior to the lease, the Dealership effectively transferred one of its "principal assets", namely the right of possession to property which would satisfy the requirements for "Dealership Premises" as defined in Section 1 of the Agreement. GM was therefore entitled to immediately terminate the Agreement following the lease of the Premises to Ford.

Appellants attempted to raise a "genuine issue of material fact" by alleging: (1) that Kohlenberg's "understanding" of the terms of the Agreement differed from that which GM asserted in terminating the Agreement, and (2) that a GM employee had, prior to the execution of the Agreement, stated that the dealership location could be moved to a nearby location if the Premises proved unsatisfactory. ⁶

It is initially noted that Section 23 of the Agreement provides, Inter alia, that:

There are no other agreements or understandings, either oral or in writing, between the parties affecting this Agreement. . . .

This Agreement cancels and...