Taxin v. Food Fair Stores, Inc.
| Decision Date | 20 February 1961 |
| Docket Number | No. 13218.,13218. |
| Citation | 287 F.2d 448 |
| Parties | John TAXIN and Bernard Taxin, trading as John Taxin Co., Appellants, v. FOOD FAIR STORES, INC., Samuel P. Mandell Co., Inc., World Wide Produce Co., Inc., Mandell Distributing Co., Inc., M. G. S. Marketing Co., Inc., M. G. S. Tomato Distributors, Inc., Israel Klein Co., Inc., Klein Packing Co., Inc., Imperial Vegetable Co., Inc., Garden Fresh Vegetable Packing Co., Inc., Twin Packing Co., Inc., Delaware Valley Fruit Distributing Co., Inc., J. & B. Produce Co., Inc., Samuel P. Mandell, Arthur Rosenberg, Louis Stein, Myer Marcus, George Friedland and Samuel Friedland, Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit |
Lester J. Schaffer, Philadelphia, Pa. for appellants.
Harold E. Kohn, Philadelphia, Pa. (Aaron M. Fine, Dilworth, Paxson, Kalish, Kohn & Dilks, Philadelphia, Pa., on the brief), for appellees.
Before McLAUGHLIN, HASTIE, and FORMAN, Circuit Judges.
In this civil antitrust suit the appellants, John and Bernard Taxin, who are wholesale distributors of fruit and produce in the Philadelphia area, have charged numerous defendants with conspiracy to restrain and monopolize interstate commerce in fruit and produce. One group of defendants, associated with defendant Food Fair Stores, Inc., will be called Food Fair or the Food Fair defendants. The second group, the appellees here, associated with defendant Samuel P. Mandell Co., Inc., will be called Mandell or the Mandell defendants.
Answering the complaint, all of the defendants pleaded a general release wherein the Taxins, for a consideration of $18,000 paid in cash to their counsel, released the defendants from liability for all claims under the antitrust laws or otherwise which the Taxins might have had against them on or before March 28, 1958, the date of the release. Replying to this affirmative defense, the appellants admitted the execution of the release but pleaded that it had resulted from Food Fair's promise to buy produce from the appellants in the future, and that this promise had been made in bad faith with a view to furthering the conspiracy to restrain trade.
The district court agreed to try the question of the validity of the release separately before considering any other issue. Accordingly, various depositions and affidavits were filed with reference to this question. The Mandell defendants then filed a motion for summary judgment asserting that, on the pleadings and the facts established and not disputed in the record, the release was valid as to them no matter what grounds of avoidance might be said to exist as against the Food Fair defendants. The court sustained this contention and granted summary judgment in favor of the Mandell defendants. From that partial disposition of the litigation this court has allowed an immediate appeal as authorized by Section 1292(b) of Title 28 U.S.C.
It is clear and not disputed that the release was intended and on its face is sufficient to bar the appellants from maintaining the present suit insofar as it pertains to injuries occurring before March 28, 1958. It is also conceded that $18,000 was paid to counsel for the appellants as consideration for the release. This sum, of which $12,000 was paid by Mandell, was used to satisfy the Taxins' obligations to their counsel.
To avoid the release appellants assert that they were induced to execute the instrument by a promise made in bad faith that Food Fair Stores, Inc., would buy $500,000 worth of fruit and produce from them annually. Affidavits of appellant John Taxin and his attorney William A. Gray, Esquire, state that Louis Stein, Myer Marcus, and Arthur Rosenberg, described as "the principals of Food Fair Stores", were the parties who made or were present at the making of the alleged fraudulent promise. For present purposes we assume, but do not decide, that there is a substantial controversy yet to be litigated between appellants and the Food Fair defendants whether or not those defendants made a fraudulent promise in order to obtain a release. Cf. Michael Rose Productions, Inc. v. Loew's, Inc., D.C.S.D.N.Y.1956, 141 F.Supp. 257; 143 F.Supp. 606. But the affidavits and allegations which support the claim of fraud do not charge that the Mandell defendants participated in or even knew of the alleged misrepresentation. Indeed, appellant Bernard Taxin has deposed that Mr. Mandell "had nothing to do with" the negotiations during which the fraudulent promise is said to have been made.
The exculpation of the Mandell defendants was one important basis of the district court's conclusion that the release was valid as to these parties. In analogous circumstances the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has suggested that it would be inequitable to deny one antitrust defendant the benefit of a settlement and release solely because of fraud, unknown to him, on the part of another defendant in connection with such settlement and release. Martina Theatre Corp. v. Schine Chain Theatres, Inc., 2 Cir., 1960, 278 F.2d 798, 802. This is in accord with the rule of Section 477 of the Contracts Restatement, which reads as follows:
For an application of that section of the Restatement by this court see Blum v. William Goldman Theatres, Inc., 3 Cir., 1947, 164 F.2d 192.
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