Lovett v. General Motors Corp., No. 91-2646

• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (8th Circuit)
• Writing for the Court: Before FAGG, Circuit Judge, HENLEY, Senior Circuit Judge, and HANSEN; FAGG
• Citation: 975 F.2d 518
• Decision Date: 15 May 1992
• Docket Number: No. 91-2646
• Parties: 1992-2 Trade Cases P 69,960 Thomas G. LOVETT, Trustee of the Bankruptcy Estate of John Peterson Motors, Inc., Donald John Peterson, individually, Appellant, v. GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION, Appellee. . Submitted:

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975 F.2d 518 1992-2 Trade Cases P 69,960 Thomas G. LOVETT, Trustee of the Bankruptcy Estate of John
Peterson Motors, Inc.,
Donald John Peterson, individually, Appellant,
v.
GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION, Appellee. No. 91-2646. United States Court of Appeals,
Eighth Circuit. Submitted: May 15, 1992.
Decided Sept. 16, 1992.

Page 519

Ronald B. Sieloff, St. Paul, Minn., for appellant.

James S. Simonson, Minneapolis, Minn., argued (William B. Slowey and Steven J. Cernak, on the brief), for appellee.

Before FAGG, Circuit Judge, HENLEY, Senior Circuit Judge, and HANSEN, Circuit Judge.

FAGG, Circuit Judge.

John Peterson Motors, Inc. (JPM), a car dealership, and Donald John Peterson (Peterson), JPM's owner and operator, brought this antitrust action against General Motors Corporation (GM) in 1985. While the case was pending that year, JPM's bankruptcy proceeding converted to chapter

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seven and Peterson lost control of JPM's antitrust suit. Peterson, however, continued to pursue individual antitrust damages. After a nine-week trial, a jury found that GM conspired with JPM's rival GM dealers to restrict distribution of vehicles to JPM for the purpose of maintaining retail prices, in violation of section one of the Sherman Antitrust Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1 (1988). The jury awarded separate damages to JPM's bankruptcy trustee and Peterson. GM moved for judgment notwithstanding the verdict (JNOV). The district court denied GM's motion with respect to JPM. Lovett v. General Motors Corp., 769 F.Supp. 1506, 1522 (D.Minn.1991). The district court granted GM's motion with respect to Peterson, however, concluding Peterson lacked standing to bring a private damage action. Id. at 1508 n. 4, 1522. Peterson appeals, and we affirm.

Peterson asserts he has standing under section four of the Clayton Act, 15 U.S.C. § 15 (1988), to maintain a private damage action against GM. Under section four, persons injured in their "business or property by reason of anything forbidden in the antitrust laws may sue" in federal district court and recover treble damages. 15 U.S.C. § 15(a) (1988); Midwest Communications, Inc. v. Minnesota Twins, Inc., 779 F.2d 444, 449-50 (8th Cir.1985), cert. denied, 476 U.S. 1163, 106 S.Ct. 2289, 90 L.Ed.2d 730 (1986). Although the statute literally confers the right to sue on anyone claiming an injury causally related to an antitrust violation, the Supreme Court has prescribed standing factors narrowing the class of persons entitled to recover private damages under section four. Midwest Communications, 779 F.2d at 450; Peck v. General Motors Corp., 894 F.2d 844, 846 (6th Cir.1990). These factors are:

(1) [t]he causal connection between the alleged antitrust violation and the harm to the plaintiff; (2) [i]mproper motive; (3) [w]hether the injury was of a type that Congress sought to redress with the antitrust laws; (4) [t]he directness between the injury and the market restraint; (5) [t]he speculative nature of the damages; [and] (6) [t]he risk of duplicate recoveries or complex damage apportionment.

McDonald v. Johnson & Johnson, 722 F.2d 1370, 1374 (8th Cir.1983) (drawing factors from Associated General Contractors v. California State Council of Carpenters, 459 U.S. 519, 535-45, 103 S.Ct. 897, 907-12, 74 L.Ed.2d 723 (1983)), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 870, 105 S.Ct. 219, 83 L.Ed.2d 149 (1984); see Peck, 894 F.2d at 846 (listing same factors in a different way). In a factually similar case, the Sixth Circuit applied these factors and concluded the sole owner of a car dealership lacked standing to bring a private antitrust action against the manufacturer primarily because the owner's lost employment income and personal investments were derivative of antitrust injury to the dealership. Peck, 894 F.2d at 846-48. We generally agree with the Sixth Circuit's reasoning, but find analysis of all six factors unnecessary in Peterson's case.

Within the framework of the six factor analysis, we have recognized a potentially dispositive point: a federal antitrust plaintiff who has not suffered an "antitrust injury" lacks standing. Midwest Communications, 779 F.2d at 450 & n. 6; see also Brunswick Corp. v. Pueblo Bowl-O-Mat, Inc., 429 U.S. 477, 489, 97 S.Ct. 690, 698, 50 L.Ed.2d 701 (1977). An antitrust injury is a loss that Congress intended to prevent with the antitrust laws and that flows from the unlawfulness of the defendant's acts. Brunswick, 429 U.S. at 489, 97 S.Ct. at 698; see Midwest, 779 F.2d at 450-51.

Peterson contends he has suffered an antitrust injury because he lost everything as a result of GM's acts. We disagree. " '[A] mere causal connection between an antitrust violation and harm to [Peterson] cannot be the basis for antitrust compensation unless the injury is directly related to the harm the antitrust laws were designed to protect.' " Midwest Communications, 779 F.2d at 451 (emphasis added) (quoting McDonald, 722 F.2d at 1374). Peterson must have been "the target of the anticompetitive...