United States v. Patterson

• Citation: 201 F. 697
• Decision Date: 26 June 1912
• Docket Number: 862.
• Parties: UNITED STATES v. PATTERSON et al.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of Ohio

201 F. 697

UNITED STATES v. PATTERSON et al.

No. 862.

United States District Court, S.D. Ohio, Western Division.

June 26, 1912

[Copyrighted Material Omitted]

The following true bill of indictment against the several defendants therein named was presented February 22, 1912:

First Count.

That such cash registers have been found so useful and the demand for them has been so great that, during said twenty years many concerns have been engaged, in the manner and under the circumstances in this indictment hereafter set forth and in competition with each other, except as hereinafter shown, in the manufacture and sale, directly and indirectly under letters patent, and otherwise, of such cash registers; and that a list of the names of such of said concerns as are known to said grand jurors, showing their respective places of manufacture, so far as known to said grand jurors, is as follows, to wit: The National Cash Register Company, a corporation, Dayton, Ohio. (Then follow names of 32 other companies.)

That of the total amount of manufacturing of such cash registers done by all of said concerns during said twenty years, said the National Cash Register Company has done from approximately eighty per cent. early in said period to approximately ninety-five per cent. at the latter end thereof.

That said concerns, during said twenty years, have also respectively sold the greater portion of the cash registers so manufactured by them, some to users of and some to dealers in such cash registers, whose several places of use and business have been situated in all the other states of the United States than those wherein such cash registers have been so manufactured by said concerns respectively, and have consigned for sale other such cash registers to such dealers and to their own agents, in such other states; that in pursuance of such sales and upon such consignments, said concerns have respectively been continually shipping such cash registers to such users, dealers and agents in such other states; the number of such users, agents and dealers being so great, as said grand jurors, upon their said oath charge the fact to be, as to make it impracticable, if not impossible, to set forth a list of them in this indictment; that, by reason of the great cost of such cash registers and as a means of furthering the sales thereof to users, it has been customary for said concerns and dealers to sell such cash registers to users upon deferred payments in installments; and that in and by so manufacturing, selling, consigning and shipping such cash registers into other states than the state of manufacture, each of said concerns has been engaged in trade and commerce among the several states of the United States within the meaning of the act of Congress approved July 2, 1890, and entitled 'An act to protect trade and commerce against unlawful restraints and monopolies.'

And the grand jurors aforesaid, upon their oath aforesaid, do further present, that said the National Cash Register Company has had certain persons for its principal officers and agents, each of whom, from the day of his becoming such officer and agent to the day of the finding and presentation of this indictment, or, in case he has ceased to be such officer and agent, from the day of his becoming such officer and agent to the day of his ceasing to be such, has been actively engaged in the management of the business and affairs of said the National Cash Register Company, under its authority, and to the full extent of his authority as such officer and agent; and that a list of the names of such of said persons as are known to said grand jurors, showing, so far as known to said grand jurors, the character of their several offices and agencies, and the time of their becoming such officers and agents respectively, and, in case they have ceased to become such officers and agents, the time when they so ceased to become such officers and agents (Christian names unknown to said grand jurors being indicated by initials), is as follows, that is to say: John H. Patterson, President, 1892-1912. (Here follows list of many officers and agents, with dates of service, including defendants charged.)

And the grand jurors aforesaid, upon their oath aforesaid, do further present, that said John H. Patterson, Edward A. Deeds, George C. Edgeter, William F. Bippus, William H. Muzzy, William Pflum, Alfred A. Thomas, Robert Patterson, Thomas J. Watson, Joseph E. Rogers, Alexander C. Harned, Frederick S. High, Pliny Eves, Arthur A. Wentz, George E. Morgan, Charles T. Walmsley, Charles A. Snyder, Walter Cool, Myer N. Jacobs, Mont. L. Lasley, Earl B. Wilson, Jonathan B. Hayward, Alexander W. Sinclair, John J. Range and Edgar Park, alias C. D. Foote, and M. G. Keith, W. M. Cummings, J. C. Laird, W. C. Howe and E. H. Epperson, whose Christion names are to said grand jurors unknown, hereinafter referred to as defendants, being as said grand jurors, upon their said oath, here charge they have been, the persons who have, by virtue of their being such officers and agents of said the National Cash Register Company, controlled and directed the business and affairs of said the National Cash Register Company, unlawfully have, continuously and at all times from the days when, as in this count above set forth, they respectively became officers and agents of said the National Cash Register Company to the day of the finding and presentation of this indictment, or to the days when they ceased to be such officers and agents, in cases where they did so cease to be such officers and agents, at and within said Western Division of said Southern District of Ohio, knowingly engaged and consciously participated in a corrupt conspiracy in undue, unreasonable, direct and oppressive restraint of said interstate trade and commerce so as aforesaid, during such times, carried on by the several concerns in this count above named other than said the National Cash Register Company, each of said defendants then and there well knowing, as he then and there did well know, all the premises in this indictment aforesaid, that is to say, a conspiracy to restrain, and which during and throughout such times has in fact restrained, said last-mentioned trade and commerce by divers unfair, oppressive, tortious, illegal and unlawful means, and means which, consideration being given to the advantage over said other concerns held by said the National Cash Register Company in consequence of its resources being, as they were, so great as compared with those of such other concerns respectively, have unlawfully, wrongfully and irresistibly excluded others from engaging in that trade and commerce, none of which has been justified or warranted by any letters-patent, a description of which conspiracy and means is now here set forth:

Second Count.

And the grand jurors aforesaid, upon their oath aforesaid, do further present, that said John H. Patterson (and the other defendants named in the first count), at divers times during the three years next preceding the finding and presentation of this indictment, at and within said Western Division of said Southern District of Ohio, under the circumstances and conditions, and by use of the means, set forth and described in the first count of this indictment, unlawfully have, by drawing to said the National Cash Register Company and causing that company to grasp it, monopolized a part of the trade and commerce among the several states in cash registers, that is to say, that part of said trade and commerce which, but for their use of those means, in carrying on the business and affairs of said the National Cash Register Company in the manner in said first count specified, would, during that period, have been secured or retained, as a matter of lawful right, by the divers concerns, other than said the National Cash Register Company, mentioned in said first count as having carried on business during said three years; said means being, as in said first count shown and charged, unfair, oppressive, tortious, illegal and unlawful under said circumstances as against said other concerns, and of a nature, under said circumstances, irresistibly to exclude those concerns from engaging in that trade and commerce; said grand jurors being unable, by reason of the great extent thereof, and because the same are unknown to them the said grand jurors, to enumerate or describe the items of such trade and commerce in cash registers so monopolized by said defendants; and the allegations of said first count descriptive of such cash registers, of said interstate trade and commerce in the same and the concerns engaged therein, and of the means employed by said defendants to restrain said interstate trade and commerce, and the allegations of said first count as to knowledge, intent and overt acts on the part of and by said defendants, being by said grand jurors incorporated in this count by reference as fully as if they were repeated in this count as part of the charge of monopolizing in this count made; against the peace and dignity of the United States, and contrary to the form of the statute of the same in such case made and provided.

Third Count.

And the grand jurors aforesaid, upon their oath aforesaid, do further present, that said John H. Patterson (and the other defendants named in the first count), having before the period of three years next preceding the finding and presentation of this indictment, in the manner, by the means and under the circumstances and conditions, mentioned and described in the first count of this indictment, engaged, as said grand jurors, upon their said oath, here charge they did engage, in the unlawful conspiracy in said first count described, and having, in and by so engaging in that unlawful...