State v. Standard Oil Co. of Ind.

• Decision Date: 12 January 1911
• Citation: 150 Iowa 46,129 N.W. 336
• Parties: STATE v. STANDARD OIL CO. OF INDIANA.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

150 Iowa 46

129 N.W. 336

STATE

v.STANDARD OIL CO. OF INDIANA.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

Jan. 12, 1911.

Appeal from District Court, Lyon County; Wm. Hutchinson, Judge.

The defendant was indicted under chapter 169, Acts 31st Gen. Assem., for the offense of unfair commercial discrimination in the sale of a petroleum product, to wit, gasoline, between different communities, to wit, the town of Alton, in the county of Sioux, and the town of Doon, in the county of Lyon. A demurrer to this indictment was sustained and the cause dismissed. From this judgment, the state appeals. Affirmed.H. W. Byers, Atty. Gen., and Chas. W. Lyon, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.

J. M. Parsons, Alfred D. Eddy, and R. W. Stewart, for appellee.

McCLAIN, J.

As some of the objections stated in the demurrer to the indictment necessitate a careful consideration of the language of the statute in determining what act or acts are required to constitute the offense described, and also a careful analysis of the indictment to determine whether any act or acts prohibited by the statute are charged as committed by the defendant, it will be necessary to set out in full the portion of the statute purporting to describe the offense and the indictment in which it was attempted to charge an offense as thus described. The section of the statute which describes the offense denominated in the title of the act as “unfair commercial discrimination between different sections, communities or localities or unfair competition,” is as follows (Code Supp. § 5028b): “Any person, firm, company, association or corporation, foreign or domestic, doing business in the state of Iowa, and engaged in the production, manufacture or distribution of petroleum or any of its products, that shall intentionally for the purpose of destroying the business of a competitor in any locality, and creating a monopoly discriminate between different sections, communities or cities of this state, by selling such commodity at a lower rate in one section, community or city than is charged for such commodity by said party in another section, community or city, after making due allowance, for the difference if any, in the grade or quality and in the actual cost of transportation from the point of production, if a raw product, or from the point of manufacture, if a manufactured product, shall be deemed guilty of unfair discrimination, which is hereby prohibited and declared to be unlawful.” The charging part of the indictment is in the following language: “The said Standard Oil Company of Indiana during the month of August, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and eight, in the county of Lyon, state of Iowa, aforesaid, being then and there a foreign corporation doing business in the state of Iowa, and then and there engaged in the distribution of a product of petroleum, to wit, gasoline, did then and there unlawfully, intentionally, and for the purpose of destroying the business of a competitor, and creating a monopoly, discriminate between different communities, to wit, the town of Alton, in the county of Sioux, in said state, and the town of Doon, in the county of Lyon, in said state, by charging a lower rate for the same grade of gasoline, after making due allowance for the difference in cost of transportation from the point of manufacture, in the said town of Alton than in the said town of Doon, contrary to the statute in such case made and provided, and the defendant is hereby accused by the grand jury of Lyon county, Iowa, of unfair discrimination as aforesaid.” So far as this case is concerned, the statute prohibits on the part of a corporation doing business in this state and engaged in the distribution of petroleum or any of its products the intentional selling of such commodity at a lower rate in one community than is charged for such commodity by said distributor in another community, after making due allowance for the difference if any in the grade and quality and in the actual cost of transportation from the point of production or manufacture, such discrimination being for the purpose of destroying the business of a competitor in any locality and creating a monopoly, and the act charged in the indictment is that of unlawfully, intentionally, and for the purpose of destroying the business of a competitor and creating a monopoly discriminating between the town of Alton, in the county of Sioux, and the town of Doon, in the county of Lyon, by charging a lower rate for the same grade of gasoline, after making due allowance for the difference in cost of transportation, in the said town of Alton than in the said town of Doon.

1. One of the objections to the indictment raised by the demurrer is that the name of the competitor whose business was to be destroyed by this discrimination is not given; but as the offense is not, as described, one against the competitor injured, but against the public thereby deprived of the advantage of competition in the sale of petroleum products tending to produce a monopoly, we think the name of the...