Rea v. Ford Motor Company, Civ. A. No. 67-286.
| Decision Date | 30 January 1973 |
| Docket Number | Civ. A. No. 67-286. |
| Citation | 355 F. Supp. 842 |
| Parties | Edward C. REA and 22 Ford, Inc., a corporation v. FORD MOTOR COMPANY. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Pennsylvania |
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Robert A. Jarvis, Robert Wayman, Thomas Kerr, Pittsburgh, Pa., for plaintiffs.
Frank L. Seamens and John Morgan, Pittsburgh, Pa., for defendant.
This complex and protracted piece of litigation has been pending since March 6, 1967, when plaintiffs, a Corporate Ford Dealer and its major stockholder, filed a complaint against defendant, Ford Motor Company, setting forth seven causes of action:
There ensued lengthy discovery proceedings and numerous motions and arguments with respect to these suits before two other judges of this court to whom the case was assigned before final assignment to the undersigned. There were also various proceedings in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan resulting from attempts by plaintiffs to take the depositions of Lee A. Iacocca, President of defendant, and other officials of the Ford Motor Company at its principal offices in Dearborn, Michigan, which proceedings as well as other discovery proceedings were vigorously resisted by the defendant.
After more than three years of discovery, defendant filed a motion for partial summary judgment with respect to the second and seventh causes of action and this court, by opinion and order dated May 5, 1971, (Rea v. Ford Motor Co., 326 F.Supp. 627 (W.D.Pa.1971), granted this motion for partial summary judgment with respect to these causes of action holding there was no sufficient memorandum in writing to satisfy the Pennsylvania Statute of Frauds (33 Purdon's Pa.Stat. § 1 et seq.) and also with respect to certain letters and other writings upon which plaintiff relied the authority of the person signing the same was not expressed in writing as also required by the Statute of Frauds. The Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, by order dated September 15, 1972, dismissed an appeal from this order since, in the light of other developments in the case, it appeared that the appeal was improvidently certified. The court pointed out that subsequent to the lodging of the appeal, trial of the remainder of the case had been held at which plaintiffs (appellants) had pursued an alternative remedy, viz: a claim for damages for breach of oral contract for the sale of real estate. Since post-trial motions were pending with respect to the jury's verdict hereinafter referred to awarding damages for breach of said oral contract, the appeal was dismissed with leave to the appellants to file a fresh appeal covering the subject matter in question, after the effective date of a final judgment in the District Court upon the remaining claims.
We adhere to our former decision on these matters reported in 326 F.Supp. 627 and hold that regardless of the finding of the jury that there was an oral contract for conveyance of real estate for breach of which damages were awarded, there is still insufficient evidence in writing of the existence and terms of such contract to justify an order of specific performance; that to allow specific performance under the second and seventh causes of action would be prohibited by the Pennsylvania Statute of Frauds, supra; that there is insufficient evidence of a written memorandum with respect to said contract; and the authority of persons to sign certain documents and letters in behalf of Ford Motor Company was not expressed in writing as required by the statute. We will deal with the question as to whether there was sufficient evidence to go to the jury to justify their finding of an oral contract to convey real estate and their award of damages for breach thereof later in this opinion.
Meanwhile, the remainder of the case was proceeding to trial. The following isues were left:
After further skirmishing with motions with respect to the pretrial narrative statements and motions for summary judgment and a lengthy pretrial conference, the case was fixed for trial in February of 1972. The trial was delayed by an attempt on the part of the plaintiffs to require the trial judge to disqualify himself which the trial judge refused to do. See Rea v. Ford Motor Co., 337 F.Supp. 950 (W.D.Pa.1972). The case proceeded to trial on April 17, 1972. The trial consumed five and one-half weeks, with over 5100 pages of transcript. At the conclusion of the evidence, the court directed a verdict as to Section 13(e) of the Robinson-Patman Act (15 U.S.C. § 13(e)), holding (N.T. 5,008) that alleged discrimination as shown by plaintiff's evidence in favor of other dealers by offering them favorable real estate transactions and favorable terms of financing did not constitute a violation of the Robinson-Patman Act which is concerned solely with price discrimination in the sale of commodities. See Gaylord Shops, Inc. v. Pittsburgh Miracle Mile Town & Country Shopping Center, Inc., 219 F.Supp. 400 (W.D.Pa.1963); Texas Gulf Sulphur Co. v. J. R. Simplot Co., 418 F.2d 793 (9th Cir. 1969); I. M. Skinner v. United States Steel Corp., 233 F.2d 762 (5th Cir. 1956).
The court likewise held that there was insufficient evidence of monopolization under Section 2 of the Sherman Act but permitted the case to go to the jury to determine if there was an attempt to monopolize under Section 2.
The jury was instructed by the court to return a special verdict which they did after lengthy deliberations, the material portions of which are set forth in Appendix I to this opinion.
The court thereupon entered judgments in accordance with the terms of the special verdict, trebling the damages found by the jury in answer to Question No. 9 in the amount of $1,750,000.00, pursuant to the provisions of 15 U.S.C. § 15, whereby they were increased to $5,250,000 thus resulting in a total award against defendant of $5,629,683. The defendants have now filed post-trial motions as follows:
We have received voluminous briefs from the parties (approximately 350 pages from the defendant and approximately 125 from the plaintiff) and have heard extensive oral arguments with respect to the same and will dispose of these motions in the following opinion.
In approaching this task, we bear in mind the elementary rule that a verdict winner is entitled to the benefit of all evidence in his favor regardless of who produced such evidence and all inferences deducible therefrom: Bruce Lincoln-Mercury v. Universal CIT Credit Corp., 325 F.2d 2 (3d Cir. 1963); Globe Motors v. Studebaker-Packard Corp., 328 F.2d 645 (3d Cir. 1964); Walsh v. Miehle-Goss-Dexter, Inc. v. Stern, 378 F.2d 409 (3d Cir. 1966); United States v. Evers, 448 F.2d 863 (3d Cir. 1971); Neville Chemical Co. v. Union Carbide, 422 F.2d 1205 (3d Cir. 1970).
We will deal with the motions with respect to each cause of action in the order in which they were presented.
Plaintiff's first cause of action alleges a contract to convey real estate generally known as the Balison tract in Monroeville, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania and asks for damages for the breach of the same including loss of bargain. As previously discussed, partial summary judgment was entered for defendant with respect to the second and seventh causes of action seeking specific performance of this contract and lis pendens.
We adhere to what was said with respect to these matters in the opinion reported in Rea v. Ford Motor Co., 326 F. Supp. 627 (D.C.1971). Inasmuch as our Court of Appeals has held that the order previously entered was interlocutory and not subject to review and to protect plaintiff's rights we will again enter summary judgment in favor of defendant on the second and seventh causes of action. We now turn to questions now raised as to the first cause of action.
At the trial of this case, plaintiffs presented evidence as to the first cause of action and claimed damages for breach of an oral contract to convey real estate. This was proper under Pennsylvania law since the Statute of Frauds applies only to an action for specific performance and not to a suit for damages for breach of an oral...
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