122 Neb. 540 | Neb. | 1932
This is an action at law, brought by the appellant to recover damages in the sum of $15,000 from the appellees, on account of alleged violations of the Nebraska antitrust law, as set out in sections 59-801 and 59-802, Comp. St. 1929, covering the subject of unfair local discrimination by any person, firm or company doing business in the state of Nebraska, and providing penalties for the violation thereof. Demurrers were filed to the original petition, and sustained, after which the appellant amended his petition, and the demurrers were allowed to stand by agreement as demurrers to the amended petition, and the demurrers being again sustained and the appellant electing to stand on the petition as amended, the action was dismissed by the district court.
The petition alleges, in substance, that the Roberts Dairy Company is a corporation, buying and selling fresh milk at Omaha; that the defendant, Floyd S. Pegler, is its manager at Omaha, and Lloyd Wright -is the assistant manager, and that the defendants Chris Bull, Fred Glessman and John Harder are residents of Sarpy county, engaged in the same business, of trucking milk, as the appellant; that the appellant, a resident of Sarpy county, for two
Appellees state that, as set out by Judge Sanborn in Whitwell v. Continental Tobacco Co., 125 Fed. 454, such statutes cannot be taken too literally or it would defeat all competition, and insist that appellant has, during the period of two years, monopolized the business of hauling fresh milk from these customers by an arrangement and agreement or combination between himself and the farmer producers and the said dairy company, and admits that the said dairy company can only displace him by making another agreement between the producers and themselves with another milk hauler, and that the present arrangement is no different from the arrangement made with the appellant, and that obviously the appellant would not be entitled to employment as long as he lived, but that the producers and the dairy company would have a right to terminate at will the arrangement with him and make the same arrangement with another hauler.
It was held in State v. Employers of Labor, 102 Neb. 768, in the text of the opinion: “If there is no contract -for any fixed term of employment, the employer may discharge, or the employee stop work, at his own pleasure.”
In Smith v. Bailey, 105 Neb. 754, we find a rule stated by this court: “That contracts for the performance of services or for the continuous furnishing of commodities are, when the contract itself specifies no period of duration, terminable, upon reasonable notice, at the ■ will of either party to the contract.”
Judge Lacombe, of the circuit court of appeals,'wrote the opinion in the case of Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. v. Cream of Wheat Co., 227 Fed. 46, in which case it was stated that the Cream of Wheat Company purchased in the open market a by-product in the manufacture of flour, and known as “purified middlings,” which it put up in
In the case on trial, we believe that the defendants acted within their legal rights, and while the notice given the plaintiff that they would discontinue business relations with him was exceedingly short, yet in the nature .of the business it would be difficult to give a longer notice.
The aim of our antitrust laws is to preserve inviolate the principle of free, fair and open competition. At the same time, these laws seek to protect the consumer, so that he may purchase his commodity at competitive prices in a free and open market, and the courts seem to have taken the position that no person, firm or corporation may obstruct, impede or retard any one from carrying on a lawful business except by fair competition or persuasion, or by a peaceful severance of business relations.
Affirmed.