Hecht v. Pro-Football, Inc.
| Decision Date | 16 April 1970 |
| Docket Number | Civ. A. No. 2815-66. |
| Citation | 312 F. Supp. 472 |
| Parties | Norman F. HECHT et al., Plaintiffs, v. PRO-FOOTBALL, INC., et al., Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Columbia |
William Joseph H. Smith, Washington, D. C., for plaintiffs.
James C. McKay, Washington, D. C., for defendant National Football League.
Lyman J. Umstead, Assistant Corporation Counsel, Washington, D. C., for defendant District of Columbia Armory Board.
This action, as asserted by the plaintiffs in their second amended complaint, was brought against the defendants under § 4 of the Clayton Act (15 U.S.C. § 15), to recover treble damages and obtain injunctive relief because of alleged violations by the defendants of §§ 1, 2 and 3 of the Sherman Act (15 U.S.C. §§ 1, 2 and 3). Only the first three claims of plaintiffs' second amended complaint are pertinent to the matter before the Court. Those claims are set forth separately in what plaintiffs have denominated Counts 1, 2 and 3. The plaintiffs and some of the defendants have filed cross motions for partial summary judgments.1
The defendants joining in a motion for partial summary judgment are the National Football League, the District of Columbia Armory Board and its individual members and Pro-Football, Inc., hereinafter referred to as "Redskins."2
Count 1 of the second amended complaint charges the defendants with entering into a contract in restraint of trade in violation of §§ 1 and 3 of the Sherman Act. Count 2 of the second amended complaint charges the defendant Redskins as being engaged in an attempt to monopolize the business of professional football in the District of Columbia in violation of §§ 2 and 3 of the Sherman Act. Count 3 of the second amended complaint charges the defendants Redskins and the National Football League of having been engaged and now being engaged in an unlawful conspiracy to restrain and monopolize, and of engaging in an attempt to monopolize, and of having monopolized, the business of professional football in the District of Columbia in violation of §§ 1, 2 and 3 of the Sherman Act.
Essentially the charges made by plaintiffs in Counts 1, 2 and 3 of the second amended complaint arise out of a lease agreement made on December 24, 1959, between the District of Columbia Armory Board and the Redskins and particularly paragraph II(e) of that agreement. By that instrument the Armory Board leased to the Redskins for a period of 30 years, beginning with the football season of 1961 and terminating at the conclusion of the football season of 1990, the now named Robert F. Kennedy Stadium for the purpose of exhibiting all Redskins home professional football games. The lease provided that at no time during its term would the stadium be let or rented to any professional football team other than the Redskins. Plaintiffs assert that that restrictive covenant constituted a contract in unreasonable restraint of the business of professional football in the District of Columbia; that it granted the Redskins a monopoly of the business of professional football in the District of Columbia. And plaintiffs further assert that the restrictive covenant resulted from an unlawful combination and conspiracy being engaged in by the Redskins and the National Football League to restrain and monopolize professional football in the District of Columbia.
The undisputed facts disclose that the Redskins is a professional football team and the only football team which engages in the exhibiting of professional football games in the District of Columbia. The National Football League is an unincorporated association of professional football teams located in several cities in the United States. The Redskins is a member of the National Football League and it plays football games with other teams which are members of the National Football League. The schedules of such games are made up by the National Football League and certain services, such as game officials, are made available to the participating teams by the National Football League. The Redskins have been engaged in exhibiting professional football in the District of Columbia for a period of more than 25 years.
Plaintiffs Hecht, Kagan and Miller describe themselves as joint venturers who desire to participate in the ownership of a professional football team that would play its games in the District of Columbia. They assert that because of the restrictive covenant in the Redskins lease with the Armory Board they were unable to organize an American Football League team and a Continental Football League team in the District of Columbia. Plaintiff Washington Federals, Inc., is a corporation created for the purpose of organizing and operating in the District of Columbia a professional football team. Plaintiffs Hecht, Kagan and Miller own all of the stock of the Washington Federals, Inc. Plaintiff United States Football League, Inc., is a nonprofit corporation which Hecht, Kagan and Miller helped to form. The Washington Federals, Inc., is allegedly a member of the United States Football League, Inc. Neither the Federals nor any other franchise holder in that League has ever employed coaches and players let alone fielded a team or played a game.
The American Football League, at the time plaintiffs Hecht, Kagan and Miller announced they were interested in organizing a Washington team in that league, was a separate and competing league from and with the National Football League. Since the institution of this action in 1966, the National Football League and American Football League have merged. That merger and its effects are not relevant to the claims asserted in the Counts 1, 2 and 3 of the second amended complaint.
The Continental Football League has been described by Hecht as a minor football League.
Hecht, Kagan and Miller have never owned nor been associated with an organization which owned and operated a professional football team. Nor have they had any experience with professional football. Hecht is the manager and assistant cashier of a branch bank; Kagan is part owner and operator of a retail liquor store; Miller operates a restaurant. At the time of oral argument counsel for the plaintiffs conceded that, other than as promoters who are attempting to organize a professional football team, plaintiffs Hecht, Kagan and Miller had no business or property that could in any way be injured by the alleged violations of the antitrust laws.
Plaintiffs argue that the restrictive covenant in the Redskins' lease is on its face a contract in restraint of trade and commerce. Defendants respond by asserting that the lease being a contract of the Armory Board, a governmental agency, is not within the scope of the Federal antitrust laws.
In E. W. Wiggins Airways, Inc. v. Massachusetts Port Authority et al., 362 F.2d 52 (1 Cir., 1966), cert. denied, 385 U.S. 947, 87 S.Ct. 320, 17 L.Ed.2d 226 (1966), plaintiff Wiggins sought to recover treble damages and obtain equitable relief on its claim that defendants Port Authority and two corporations had entered into a conspiracy, combination or contract in restraint of trade or commerce in that they attempted to establish a sole and exclusive fixed base operation at Logan Airport in Boston, Massachusetts, and that each of the defendants attempted to monopolize and combined or conspired to monopolize the fixed base operation business, all allegedly in violation of §§ 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act.3 The contract with the Port Authority gave the defendant corporations the exclusive right to the fixed base operation at Logan Airport. For some years prior to that contract Wiggins and another company conducted fixed base operations as competitors at Logan Airport. Both Wiggins and the competing company, as a result of the Port Authority's contract with the defendant corporations, were no longer permitted to do a fixed base operation business at Logan Airport. The United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts entered a judgment dismissing the action on the ground that the complaint did not state a claim upon which relief could be granted. The Court of Appeals, in affirming the District Court, stated, 362 F.2d at 55:
In carrying out its responsibilities the Authority decided that it was necessary to have only one fixed base operation at Logan and pursuant to that decision, entered into the lease with Butler-Boston. It is clear that in doing so it was acting as an instrumentality or agency of the state, pursuant to the legislative mandate imposed upon it to operate and manage the airport and establish rules and regulations for its use. Plaintiff's contention that the Authority in operating Logan Airport is engaged in a purely proprietary capacity and is conducting a private business has no merit. Nor does the arrangement with Butler-Boston violate the Sherman Act. What was done here was in the exercise of a valid governmental function. The antitrust laws are aimed at private action, not at governmental action.
The court having found that the Port Authority's conduct was lawful further held that it would be "unreasonable restriction on its freedom to hold that the other defendants acted illegally in having aided it" in the performance of a governmental function. 362 F.2d 56.
In Sun Valley Disposal Co., Inc. v. Silver State Disposal Co. et al., 420 F.2d 341, (9 Cir., December 17, 1969), a summary judgment for defendants was affirmed. There plaintiff had operated a garbage pick up and disposal service in Clark County, Nevada. In engaging in that business it had been competing with one of the defendants until the latter obtained an exclusive franchise from the Clark County Commission, a governmental body. In holding that the exclusive garbage collection and disposal service contract was not illegal the Ninth Circuit cited E. W. Wiggins Airways, Inc. v. Massachusetts Port...
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Hecht v. Pro-Football, Inc.
...football in violation of §§ 1, 2, and 3 of the Sherman Act. On cross-motions for summary judgment, the U. S. District Judge, 312 F. Supp. 472, granted the appellee-defendants' motions for summary judgment on all three counts, Thus, the leasing of the stadium was pursuant to the mandate of t......
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