In re Cuisinart Food Processor Antitrust Litigation, 447.

• Decision Date: 16 January 1981
• Docket Number: No. 447.,447.
• Citation: 506 F. Supp. 651
• Parties: In re CUISINART FOOD PROCESSOR ANTITRUST LITIGATION.
• Court: Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation

506 F. Supp. 651

In re CUISINART FOOD PROCESSOR ANTITRUST LITIGATION.

No. 447.

Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation.

January 16, 1981.

Before ANDREW A. CAFFREY, Chairman, and ROY W. HARPER, CHARLES R. WEINER, EDWARD S. NORTHROP, ROBERT H. SCHNACKE, FREDERICK A. DAUGHERTY, and SAM C. POINTER, Jr., Judges of the Panel.

OPINION AND ORDER

PER CURIAM.

This litigation consists of eight actions¹ pending in five districts: three in the District of Connecticut;² two in the Northern District of Illinois; and one each in the District of Massachusetts, the Southern District of California and the Northern District of California.

Cuisinarts, Inc. (Cuisinarts), a defendant in six of the actions, is a corporation organized and existing under the laws of the State of Connecticut, with its principal place of business in Greenwich, Connecticut. Cuisinarts is the exclusive distributor in the United States of several models of food processors³ which it imports from France or Japan and sells under the "Cuisinart" trademark. Substantial quantities of food processors are sold by Cuisinarts to retail stores which in turn sell them to consumers. Cuisinarts takes orders for its food processors from retail stores primarily through its sales representatives located throughout the United States; the food processors are then shipped by Cuisinarts directly to the retail stores.

This litigation was spawned by the indictment of Cuisinarts, filed on September 17, 1980, by a federal grand jury sitting in Hartford, Connecticut. The indictment charges that, from at least 1974 until at least August, 1979, Cuisinarts and various unindicted co-conspirators conspired, in violation of the Sherman Act, to fix, stabilize and maintain the retail prices of food processors at the prices set by Cuisinarts. The Government subsequently filed in the District of Connecticut a civil action which tracks the allegations of the criminal indictment.

Each of the eight private actions before the Panel was commenced within the past few months. All the private actions share certain basic similarities. First, the complaints in all the private actions parallel the indictment and the Government civil complaint insofar as they allege the existence of a conspiracy to fix, stabilize and maintain the prices of Cuisinart food processors. Second, plaintiffs in each action seek treble damages and injunctive relief. Third, all the private actions are brought as class actions.

Four of the actions (the three Connecticut actions and the Massachusetts action) are brought as nationwide consumer class actions. Each of these actions alleges a nationwide class of all persons who purchased Cuisinart food processors at retail. The claims in each complaint rely on federal antitrust law. Cuisinarts is the sole defendant in three of the four actions and is named as a defendant along with two officers of Cuisinarts in the fourth action. Little or no discovery has occurred in these actions.

The Southern District of California action is brought on behalf of a class of all private individuals who purchased Cuisinart food processors from retail outlets in California. The complaint, which bases its claims exclusively on California state antitrust laws, names as defendants Cuisinarts and J.W. Robinson, Inc. (Robinson), a California retailer. This action was commenced in California state court and subsequently removed to federal court by Cuisinarts.⁴ Little or no discovery has occurred in this action.

The Northern District of California action is brought on behalf of a nationwide class of retailers which plaintiff alleges were prevented from selling Cuisinart food processors by their refusal to participate in the price-fixing conspiracy. The following parties are named as defendants: 1) Cuisinarts; 2) James D. Mah Associates (Mah), a California business entity and allegedly the sales representative of Cuisinarts in northern California; and 3) Hardwick Townsend, a California corporation and allegedly the sales representative of Cuisinarts in southern California. Plaintiff, a California retailer, seeks to recover for itself and the purported class members the lost profits occasioned by the alleged deprivation of a business opportunity. The complaint bases its claims on federal antitrust law. Little or no discovery has occurred in this action.

One of the Illinois actions (Bahr) is brought on behalf of a class of all persons who purchased Cuisinart food processors from Marshall Field & Co., Inc. (Marshall Field) and/or retail stores owned, operated or controlled by Marshall Field. Similarly, the other Illinois action (Ehrlich) is brought on behalf of a class of all persons who purchased Cuisinart food processors from Crate & Barrel, Inc. (Crate & Barrel) and/or retail stores owned, operated or controlled by Crate & Barrel. Marshall Field is the sole defendant in Bahr and Crate & Barrel is the sole defendant in Ehrlich. Cuisinarts is alleged to be a co-conspirator in both actions but is not named as a defendant in either action. The claims in each complaint rely on federal antitrust law. Plaintiffs in these actions have served interrogatories and document requests on defendants and a number of depositions have been completed.

Cuisinarts has moved the Panel, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1407, to centralize these eight actions⁵ in the District of Connecticut for coordinated or consolidated pretrial proceedings. Plaintiffs in two of the nationwide consumer class actions and Mah, a defendant in the Northern District of California action, support the motion. Plaintiffs in the remaining two nationwide consumer class actions support centralization limited to the four nationwide consumer class actions. The following parties oppose transfer of their respective actions: 1) plaintiffs in both California actions; 2) all parties to both Illinois actions; and 3) Robinson, a defendant in the Southern District of California action. If the Panel determines, however, that Section 1407 proceedings are appropriate in this docket, plaintiff in the Northern District of California action and Robinson favor selection of a California transferee forum and the Illinois plaintiffs favor selection of the Northern District of Illinois as the transferee forum.

We find that these actions involve common questions of fact and that transfer of the actions pending in districts other than the District of Connecticut to that district for coordinated or consolidated pretrial proceedings under Section 1407 with the actions pending there will best serve the convenience of the parties and witnesses and promote the just and efficient conduct of the litigation.

Opponents to transfer argue that the Illinois actions and the Southern District of California action raise a multitude of individual factual issues. These actions, opponents contend, allege more limited conspiracies than the national conspiracy alleged by plaintiffs in the four nationwide consumer class actions. Discovery in the Illinois actions and the Southern District of California action, opponents maintain, will focus on distinctly local factors and will be much narrower in scope than discovery in the nationwide consumer class actions. In addition, the parties to the Illinois actions and defendant Robinson in the Southern District of California action assert that transfer to the District of Connecticut would cause them extreme inconvenience.

The parties to the Illinois actions also contend that no possibility exists that the classes alleged in the Illinois actions will overlap with the nationwide or California consumer classes because these latter classes, unlike the classes alleged in the Illinois actions, are untenable inasmuch as they are not limited to purchasers from a single retailer. The Illinois parties argue that the nationwide and statewide actions will require individualized proof of a myriad of vertical conspiracies. Such proof will be so dominated by non-common issues of fact that denial of class certification in the nationwide and statewide actions is inevitable, the Illinois parties contend.

Plaintiff in the Northern District of California action emphasizes the unique aspects of its action. Plaintiff, which represents a purported class of retailers allegedly prevented from selling Cuisinart food processors by their refusal to participate in the conspiracy, argues that this class does not overlap with the classes alleged in any of the other actions. Plaintiff contends that discovery in the Northern District of California action will focus on a number of issues, such as wholesale price structure, potential sales of the boycotted retailers and the prices they would have charged, which are...