Seaboard Terminals Corporation v. Standard Oil Co.

• Citation: 24 F. Supp. 1018
• Parties: SEABOARD TERMINALS CORPORATION et al. v. STANDARD OIL CO. OF NEW JERSEY et al.
• Decision Date: 30 June 1938
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of New York

24 F. Supp. 1018

SEABOARD TERMINALS CORPORATION et al. v. STANDARD OIL CO. OF NEW JERSEY et al.

District Court, S. D. New York.

June 30, 1938.

O'Connor & Farber, of New York City (Henry K. Urion and Stephen V. Ryan, Jr., both of New York City, of counsel), for plaintiffs.

Davis, Polk, Wardwell, Gardiner & Reed, of New York City (John W. Davis, Edwin F. Blair, Judson McLester, Jr., and D. Nelson Adams, all of New York City, of counsel), for defendant Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey.

Louis Mead Treadwell, of New York City (Stafford Smith and Henry B. Potter, both of New York City, of counsel), for Socony-Vacuum Oil Co., Inc.

Kellogg, Emery & Inness-Brown, of New York City (David Paine, J. Branch Darby, and Harold Kronig, all of New York City, of counsel), for defendant American Oil Co.

PATTERSON, District Judge.

The action is one at law for treble damages under section 4 of the Clayton Act, 15 U.S.C.A. § 15, to the effect that any person injured in business or property by reason of anything forbidden in the anti-trust laws may recover threefold the damages sustained. The defendants have made motions under Rule 107 of the New York Rules of Civil Practice to dismiss the action on the ground that it is barred by the statute of limitations.

The action was commenced on June 29, 1936. The amended complaint shows that the plaintiffs are Maryland corporations, Seaboard Terminals Corporation owning all the stock of Seaboard Midland Corporation; that the defendant Standard Oil Company is a Delaware corporation, defendant Socony-Vacuum Oil Company a New York corporation and defendant American Oil Company a Maryland corporation; that Seaboard Terminals in 1924 acquired a long lease on waterfront property in Baltimore on which it built storage tanks, pipe lines and terminal facilities for storing, handling and transshipping gasoline and other petroleum products, and it engaged in the business of furnishing such facilities to concerns dealing in such products; that Seaboard Midland in 1924 engaged in the business of buying gasoline and other petroleum products, chiefly in cargo lots, and selling the same at wholesale to dealers, chiefly in tank car lots, using the facilities of Seaboard Terminals, and that Seaboard Midland was engaged in interstate commerce in that it purchased gasoline in California and other states, took delivery in cargo lots, and sold and delivered in tank cars from the Seaboard Terminals plant in Maryland to customers in various states. It is alleged that the defendants, who were also engaged in buying, transporting and selling gasoline in interstate commerce from and to various states including Maryland, conspired to restrain interstate commerce in violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, 15 U.S.C.A. §§ 1-7, 15 note and to destroy the business of Seaboard Terminals and the business of Seaboard Midland; that in pursuance of the conspiracy the defendants, beginning in 1925, arbitrarily fixed prices, cut off Seaboard Midland from sources of supply and did other oppressive acts, with the result that Seaboard Midland was forced out of business in March 1933 and Seaboard Terminals was obliged to sell its properties at a loss in May 1933; that later one of the defendants and a subsidiary of another made claims against Seaboard Midland for moneys alleged to be due them and commenced suits in Maryland against it in August and September 1933. Damages of $4,800,000 for Seaboard Midland and $168,000 for Seaboard Terminals are demanded.

The defendants show in their moving papers, as bearing on the statute of limitations, that the Maryland statute is to the effect that actions on the case must be commenced within three years from accrual (Code of Public General Laws, article 57, section 1). It is also shown that two of the defendants, American Oil Company and Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, for many years have been doing business in Maryland and have been subject to suit there, American Oil Company being a Maryland corporation and Standard Oil of New Jersey having an office and agents there.

The period of limitation for civil actions under the antitrust statutes, not being specified by Congress, is to be found in the law of the forum. Chattanooga Foundry & Pipe Works v. Atlanta, 203 U. S. 390, 27 S.Ct. 65, 51 L.Ed. 241. When we examine the law of the forum, New York, we find that an action to recover on a liability created by statute must be commenced within six years after the cause of action accrued, Civil Practice Act, section 48; but by section 13 of the Civil Practice Act it is provided that where a cause of action arises outside of the state, an action may not be commenced in the state to enforce such cause of action "after the expiration of the time limited by the laws of a state or country where the cause of action arose, for bringing an action upon such cause of action." From the amended complaint it is evident that...