Weissbard v. Potter Drug & Chemical Corp.

• Citation: 69 A.2d 559,6 N.J.Super. 451
• Decision Date: 29 November 1949
• Docket Number: No. C--347,C--347
• Parties: WEISSBARD et al. v. POTTER DRUG & CHEMICAL CORPORATION.
• Court: Superior Court of New Jersey

Page 451

6 N.J.Super. 451

69 A.2d 559

WEISSBARD et al. v. POTTER DRUG & CHEMICAL CORPORATION.

No. C--347.

Superior Court of New Jersey

Chancery Division.

Nov. 29, 1949.

Bilder, Bilder & Kaufman, Newark (Samuel Kaufman, Newark), for plaintiffs.

Lorentz & Stamler, Newark (Joseph H. Stamler, Newark), for defendant.

FREUND, J.S.C.

The plaintiffs instituted this proceeding under the Declaratory Judgments Act, R.S. 2:26--66 et seq., N.J.S.A., to declare a contract executed by the defendant pursuant to the provisions of the Fair Trade Act, R.S. 56:4--1 et seq., N.J.S.A., to be null and void, and to restrain the defendant from taking any proceeding against the plaintiffs.

The defendant has moved to dismiss the complaint on the ground that it is insufficient in law and fails to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.

These are the facts alleged in the complaint: The plaintiffs are the owners of retail drug stores in the City of Newark. The defendant is the manufacturer of soap and ointment products marketed under the trade name 'Cuticura'. Pursuant to the provisions of the Fair Trade Act, the defendant executed a contract with one or more of its retailers in this State, fixing the minimum price at which its commodities might be sold at retail. Notice of the execution of this contract was given by the defendant to retailers, including the plaintiffs, and by reason thereof, the plaintiffs became bound to sell at the prices fixed by the defendant. The plaintiffs allege that they maintained such Fair Trade prices but discovered that a number of their competitors were selling the products below the fixed prices, and they thereupon reduced prices to meet the competition. They notified the defendant of such underselling, but it failed to obtain from other retailers compliance with the price schedule. The plaintiffs charge that accordingly the defendant has abandoned its contract and the prices adopted thereunder, and they seek a judgment declaring the contract to be null and void, permitting the plaintiffs to sell the defendant's products free of restrictions and enjoining the defendant from taking any proceeding to enforce against plaintiffs the resale price fixed by the defendant.

Upon the filing of the complaint, duly verified, a preliminary restraint issued against the prosecution of any action by the defendant against the plaintiffs. The defendant has moved to vacate the restraint in the event that its motion for dismissal of the complaint be denied, and has filed affidavits of other retailers which allege that the plaintiffs were the violators of the price schedule and that plaintiffs' conduct produced the underselling--'the pot called the kettle black.'

Both parties assert that the instant matter is of novel impression in this State and that Stockman v. Wilson Distilling Co., Inc., 175 Misc. 314, 23 N.Y.S.2d 510, 511, (1940), affirmed, 261 App.Div. 969, 26 N.Y.S.2d 510, motion for leave to appeal denied, 286 N.Y. 737, 35 N.E.2d 201, is the only reported case on point. The defendant relies on the Stockman case and the plaintiffs attempt to distinguish it. There, as here, a proceeding was brought by the plaintiff, a retailer, against the defendant, the exclusive distributor of the commodity, upon practically the same facts and seeking the same relief. The Supreme Court of New York granted defendant's motion for dismissal of the complaint as insufficient in law. Mr. Justice Steinbrink, whose opinion was adopted by the appellate court, said: 'The purpose of the action is plain. The plaintiff seeks immunity from the prosecution of any action against him under the statute. It is equally plain that no such immunity can be afforded by means of a declaratory judgment, for even though it be assumed that the defendant is under a statutory duty to enforce its fair trade agreements and that it has, by failing to discharge that duty, abandoned its rights under the agreements, nevertheless price cutting by the plaintiff would remain actionable 'at the suit of any person damaged thereby,' including competing retailers. 'The general purpose of the declaratory judgment is to serve some practical end in quieting or stabilizing an uncertain or disputed jural relation either as to present or prospective obligations.' James v. Alderton Dock Yards, Ltd., 256 N.Y. 298, at page 305, 176 N.E. 401, at page 404. A declaratory judgment could not serve that purpose, for the jural relations attaching to the fair trade agreements, affecting as it does all competing retailers, cannot be determined with finality in this action. The motion is consequently granted.'

Referring to the Stockman case, Professor Borchard in his work on Declaratory Judgments, 2nd Ed., 1941, in a note at Page 1025, observed: 'In Stockman v. Wilson Distilling Co., 175 Misc. 314, 23 N.Y.S.2d 510 (1940) the court declined to declare the invalidity of certain price-maintenance...