National Auto Brokers Corp. v. General Motors Corp.

• Decision Date: 17 June 1971
• Docket Number: No. 70 Civ. 5421.,70 Civ. 5421.
• Citation: 332 F. Supp. 280
• Parties: NATIONAL AUTO BROKERS CORP. et al., Plaintiffs, v. GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of New York

332 F. Supp. 280

NATIONAL AUTO BROKERS CORP. et al., Plaintiffs, v. GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION et al., Defendants.

No. 70 Civ. 5421.

United States District Court, S. D. New York.

June 17, 1971.

Carl E. Person, New York City, for plaintiffs.

Cahill, Gordon, Sonnett, Reindel & Ohl, New York City, for defendants The Citizens Bank & Trust Co. of Maryland, Wilmington Trust Co., Suburban Trust Co., and The News-Journal Co.; William E. Hegarty, Allen S. Joslyn, New York City, of counsel.

OPINION

COOPER, District Judge.

Defendants Citizens Bank and Trust Company of Maryland (Citizens), Wilmington Trust Company (Wilmington), Suburban Trust Company (Suburban) and News-Journal Company (News-Journal) move pursuant to Rule 12(b), F.R.Civ.P. and Section 12 of the Clayton Act, 15 U.S.C. § 22, to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction and improper venue. Motions denied with leave to renew (before the Judge sitting in the motion part) following discovery now being undertaken by plaintiffs.¹ Inquiries as to the nature, range, extent and dollar volume of activities (including but not limited to corresponding balances) of correspondent banks of Citizens, Wilmington and Suburban located in the Southern District of New York are proper.

Wilmington and News-Journal are Delaware corporations; Citizens and Suburban are Maryland corporations. Each is not licensed to do business in New York; maintains no office or place of business in New York; does not own, lease or use any real or personal property in New York; and has no employees, officers or directors who reside in New York. Defendants' Joint Memorandum, p. 8; News-Journal Main Memorandum, p. 6.

However, relatively few contacts are necessary to establish venue. A checklist of negated contacts combined with a failure to take notice of those present— whatever the merits as advocacy strategy —provides the Court with a distorted picture for analysis; it demonstrates that often it is the better part of wisdom to require broad discovery prior to making anti-trust venue determinations. U. S. v. Watchmakers of Switzerland Information Center, Inc., 133 F.Supp. 40, 43 (S.D.N.Y.1955); Abrams v. Bendix Home Appliances, Inc., 96 F.Supp. 3 (S. D.N.Y.1951); 37 N.Y.U.L.Rev. 268, 282 (1962).

I

The Clayton Act specifically provides venue requirements for corporate² defendants:

"Any suit, action, or proceeding under the anti-trust laws against a corporation may be brought not only in the judicial district whereof it is an inhabitant, but also in any district wherein it may be found or transacts business * * *"

The term "transacts business" was intentionally added by Congress to broaden venue in anti-trust cases and to further the sound remedial policy of allowing an aggrieved party a larger number of available forums in which to litigate. It is undisputed that the "transacts business" test is broader than either local process or Clayton Act "found" or "doing business" tests. Eastman Kodak Co. of N. Y. v. Southern Photo Materials Co., (273 U.S. 359, 47 S.Ct. 400, 71 L.Ed. 684 (1927)); 1 Moore's Federal Practice, 0.144 15 at 1668-1669; 37 N.Y.U.L.Rev. 268, 280-81, 283 n. 107.

"Thus, by substituting practical, business conceptions for the previous hair-splitting legal technicalities encrusted upon the `found'—`present'— `carrying on business' sequence, the Eastman Kodak, supra, Court yielded to and made effective Congress' remedial purpose. Thereby it relieved persons injured through corporate violations of the anti-trust laws from the `often insuperable obstacles' of resorting to distant forums for redress of wrongs done in the places of their business or residence." United States v. Scophony Corp. of America, 333 U. S. 795, 808, 68 S.Ct. 855, 862, 92 L.Ed. 1091 (1948).

The essence of the "transacts business" test is that it is fair, just and proper to require a corporation to defend an action where it derives benefit of a "substantial character in a more or less permanent fashion," a "practical, factual concept which the court should determine by appraising the facts in their ordinary, untechnical meaning within the context of the unique circumstances of a particular situation." Scophony, supra, at 819, 68 S.Ct. 855 (concurring opinion of Frankfurter, J.); Albert Levine Associates v. Bertoni and Cotti et al., 309 F.Supp. 456 (S.D.N.Y. 1970); 1 Moore's Federal Practice ¶ 0.144 15 at 1669.

In determining the unique circumstances of a particular situation broad discovery is frequently essential. Where the law clearly requires ultimate inquiry into such circumstances, it is obvious that a searching inquiry cannot be foreclosed at the discovery stage. The courts have rejected numerous theories seeking to limit venue (and hence discovery) including the "hair-splitting legal technicalities" of the old "found— present—carrying-on business tests," Scophony, supra, at 807-808, 68 S.Ct. 855, and the passage of title, B. J. Semel Associates, Inc. v. United Fireworks Manufacturing Co., 122 U.S.App.D.C. 402, 355 F.2d 827 (1965); Sunbury Wire Rope Manufacturing Company v. United States Steel Corporation, 129 F. Supp. 425 (E.D.Pa.1955); see generally, Raul International Corp. v. Nu-Era Gear Corp., 28 F.R.D. 368 (S.D.N.Y.1961).

The chief indicator of "transacts business" ordinarily has been whether the dollar volume of business benefit viewed objectively and without reference to the total volume of business of any particular corporation is substantial from the point of view of the average businessman. B. J. Semel Associates, Inc. v. United Fireworks Mfg. Co., 122 U.S.App.D.C. 402, 355 F.2d 827 (D.C. Cir.1965); United States v. Burlington Industries, Inc. et al., 247 F.Supp. 185 (S.D.N.Y.1965); Sunbury Wire Rope Mfg. Co. v. United States Steel Corp., 18 F.R.D. 13 (E.D.Pa.1955), rev'd on other grounds, 230 F.2d 511 (3d Cir. 1956); Green v. United States Chewing Gum Mfg. Co., 224 F.2d 369 (5th Cir. 1955). The test does not require that the activities to be counted for venue purposes be among those which are within the subject matter of the suit. Burlington Industries, supra, 247 F.Supp. at 187.

Additionally, the test specifically has not depended on the size of the corporation or over-all activities or whether the relevant corporate activities comprise a large percentage of the market. To do so would ordinarily permit liberal venue placement as against small corporations but apply a stricter test more favorable to larger corporations which may in fact have greater power and thereby greater involvement or influence in the alleged illegal activity. Chewing Gum, supra; Burlington Industries, supra. The remedial policies of the antitrust laws are ordinarily best served by disallowing such treatment which may act to discriminate against small corporations on the issue of venue.

II

A brief description of correspondent activities is found in Bank of America v. Whitney Bank, 261 U.S. 171, 43 S.Ct. 311, 67 L.Ed. 594 (1923) (opinion by Mr. Justice Brandeis for the unanimous court). The case, heavily relied upon by movants, discusses the relationship of the defendant Whitney Bank, a national bank with its banking house and usual place of business at New Orleans, Louisiana, to six other banks

"Whose places of business are located in New York, and of transactions conducted through them. Each of these six banks is what is commonly called a correspondent of the defendant. In each the Whitney Central carries continuously an active, regular deposit account. But its transactions with these banks are not limited to making deposits and drawing against them. Superimposed upon the simple relation of bank and depositor are numerous other transactions which necessarily involve also the relationship of principal and agent. These additional transactions conducted by the correspondent banks include: Payment in New York of drafts drawn, with accompanying documents, against letters of credit issued by defendant at New Orleans; the receipt in New York from brokers and others of securities in which the Whitney Central or its depositors are interested, and the delivery of such securities; the making of payment to persons in New York for such securities; the holding of such securities on deposit in New York for long periods and arranging substitution of securities; the cashing, under specific instructions from defendant given in New Orleans, of checks drawn on it by third parties with whom it had no banking or deposit relations; the receipt in New York from third parties, with whom defendant apparently had no banking relations, of deposits of moneys for account of its customers.

The Whitney Central had what would popularly be called a large New York business. The transactions were varied, important and extensive." 261 U.S. 171, 172-173, 43 S.Ct. 311 (emphasis added).

To begin with, the Whitney Bank case, not an anti-trust case, held that the court had no jurisdiction and that service of process solely upon the defendant's president while temporarily in New York was improper. In the instant case, each movant bank was served in its home state. The narrow issue here is anti-trust venue under the specific antitrust "transacts business" test totally inapplicable in the Whitney Bank case.

The relevant movants seek to merge the "doing business" and "actual presence" jurisdictional tests of 1923, the year of the decision in Whitney Bank, with the anti-trust "transacts business" test. In doing so, we feel they have neither properly interpreted Whitney Bank, Eastman Kodak, supra, Scophony, supra (decided on the specific anti-trust venue issue subsequent to Whitney Bank), nor almost a half-century of case law which has found the anti-trust "transacts business" test to be more liberal—an approach more consistent with express Congressional intent which we have already discussed.³

However, to the extent applicable, Whitney Bank strongly suggests that the activities and location of a correspondent bank⁴ are a proper subject of inquiry in...