TIMKEN ROLLER BEARING CO. v. UNITED STATES
No. 352
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued April 24, 1951. - Decided June 4, 1951.
341 U.S. 593
No. 352. Argued April 24, 1951. - Decided June 4, 1951.
W. Perry Epes argued the cause for the United States. With him on the brief were Solicitor General Perlman, Assistant Attorney General Morison, Charles H. Weston and J. Roger Wollenberg.
MR. JUSTICE BLACK delivered the opinion of the Court.
The United States brought this civil action to prevent and restrain violations of the Sherman Act1 by appellant, Timken Roller Bearing Co., an Ohio corporation.
As early as 1909 appellant and British Timken‘s predecessor had made comprehensive agreements providing for a territorial division of the world markets for antifriction bearings. These arrangements were somewhat modified and extended in 1920, 1924 and 1925. Again in 1927 the agreements were substantially renewed in connection with a transaction by which appellant and one Dewar, an English businessman, cooperated in purchasing all the stock of British Timken. Later some British Timken stock was sold to the public with the result that appellant now holds about 30% of the outstanding shares while Dewar owns about 24%.3 In 1928 appellant and Dewar organized French Timken and since that date have together owned all the stock in the French company. Beginning in that year, appellant, British Timken and French Timken have continuously kept operative “business agreements” regulating the manufacture and sale of antifriction bearings by the three companies and providing for the use by the British and French corporations of the trademark “Timken.”4 Under these agreements
On these findings, the District Court concluded that appellant had violated the Sherman Act as charged, and entered a comprehensive decree designed to bar future violations. 83 F. Supp. 284. The case is before us on appellant‘s direct appeal under
Although appellant has indiscriminately challenged the District Court‘s judgment and decree in over 200 separate assignments of error, the real grounds relied on for reversal are only a few in number.5 In the first place, appellant contends that most of the District Court‘s material findings of fact are without evidential support, that they “ignore or fail properly to evaluate” evidence supporting appellant‘s position, and that it was error for the court to refuse to make additional findings. For the most part, this shotgun approach is actually only a dispute as to the proper inferences to be drawn from the evidence in the record;6 in effect, it is an invitation for
Appellant next contends that the restraints of trade so clearly revealed by the District Court‘s findings can be justified as “reasonable,” and therefore not in violation of the Sherman Act, because they are “ancillary” to allegedly “legal main transactions,” namely, (1) a “joint venture” between appellant and Dewar, and (2) an exercise of appellant‘s right to license the trademark “Timken.”
We cannot accept the “joint venture” contention. That the trade restraints were merely incidental to an otherwise legitimate “joint venture” is, to say the least, doubtful. The District Court found that the dominant purpose of the restrictive agreements into which appellant, British Timken and French Timken entered was to avoid all competition either among themselves or with
Nor can the restraints of trade be justified as reasonable steps taken to implement a valid trademark licensing system, even if we assume with appellant that it is the owner of the trademark “Timken” in the trade areas allocated to the British and French corporations. Appellant‘s premise that the trade restraints are only incidental to the trademark contracts is refuted by the District Court‘s finding that the “trade mark provisions [in the agreements] were subsidiary and secondary to the central purpose of allocating trade territories.” Furthermore, while a trademark merely affords protection to a name, the agreements in the present case went far beyond protection of the name “Timken” and provided for control of the manufacture and sale of antifriction bearings
We also reject the suggestion that the Sherman Act should not be enforced in this case because what appellant has done is reasonable in view of current foreign trade conditions. The argument in this regard seems to be that tariffs, quota restrictions and the like are now such that the export and import of antifriction bearings can no longer be expected as a practical matter; that appellant cannot successfully sell its American-made goods abroad; and that the only way it can profit from business in England, France and other countries is through the ownership of stock in companies organized and manufacturing there. This position ignores the fact that the provisions in the Sherman Act against restraints of foreign trade are based on the assumption, and reflect the policy, that export and import trade in commodities is both possible and desirable. Those provisions of the Act are wholly inconsistent with appellant‘s argument that American business must be left free to participate in international cartels, that free foreign commerce in goods must be sacrificed in order to foster export of American dollars for investment in foreign factories which sell abroad. Acceptance of appellant‘s view would make the Sherman Act a dead letter insofar as it prohibits contracts and conspiracies in restraint of foreign trade. If such a drastic change is to be made in the statute, Congress is the one to do it.
MR. JUSTICE DOUGLAS, MR. JUSTICE MINTON and I believe that the decree properly ordered divestiture. Our views on this point are as follows: Appellant‘s interests in the British and French companies were obtained as part of a plan to promote the illegal trade restraints. If not severed, the intercompany relationships will provide in the future, as they have in the past, the temptation and means to engage in the prohibited conduct. These considerations alone should be enough to support the divestiture order. United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc., 334 U. S. 131, 152-153; United States v. National Lead Co., 332 U. S. 319, 363. But there are other considerations as well. The decree should not be overturned unless we can say that the District Court abused its discretion. Absent divestiture, it is difficult to see where other parts of the decree forbidding trade restraints would add much to what the Sherman Act by itself already prohibits.9 And obviously the most effec-
Nevertheless, a majority of this Court, for reasons set forth in other opinions filed in this case, believe that divestiture should not have been ordered by the District Court. Therefore, it becomes necessary to strike from the decree §§ VIII, IVB, and the phrase “or B” in § IVC. As so modified, the judgment of the District Court is affirmed.
It is so ordered.
MR. JUSTICE BURTON and MR. JUSTICE CLARK took no part in the consideration or decision of this case.
MR. JUSTICE REED, with whom THE CHIEF JUSTICE joins, concurring.
It seems to me there can be no valid objection to that part of the opinion which approves the finding of the District Court that the Timken Roller Bearing Company has violated §§ 1 and 3 of the Sherman Act. It may seem
There are no specific statutory provisions authorizing courts to employ the harsh remedy of divestiture in civil proceedings to restrain violations of the Sherman Act. Fines and imprisonment may follow criminal convictions,
Since divestiture is a remedy to restore competition and not to punish those who restrain trade, it is not to be used indiscriminately, without regard to the type of violation or whether other effective methods, less harsh, are available. That judicial restraint should follow such lines is exemplified by our recent rulings in United States v. National Lead Co., 332 U. S. 319, where we approved divestiture of some properties belonging to the conspirators and denied it as to others, pp. 348-353. While the decree here does not call for confiscation, it does call for divestiture. I think that requirement is unnecessary.3
In this case the prohibited plan grew out of the effort to implement a patent monopoly. The difficulties of cultivating a foreign market for our manufactured goods obviously entered into creation of the British and French companies so as to enjoy a right of distribution into areas where otherwise restrictions, because of tariffs, quotas and exchange, might be expected. We fail to see such propensity toward restraint of trade as is evidenced in the Crescent case.
What we have is an American corporation, dominant in the field of tapered roller bearings, producing between 70 and 80 percent of the American output. In 1947 its gross sales were over $77,000,000. This is a distinctive type of bearing, competing successfully for adoption by industry with other antifriction bearings. Timken pro-
In such circumstances, there was, of course, no occasion for the lower court to order any splitting up of a consolidated entity. Cf. Standard Oil Co. v. United States, 221 U. S. 1; United States v. American Tobacco Co., 221 U. S. 106.
There has been no effort to create numerous smaller companies out of Timken so that there will be no dominant individual in the tapered roller bearing field. The American company had had a normal growth and development. Its relations with English and French Timken were close and American Timken had stock and contracts for further stock in both foreign companies of value in the development of its foreign business. Such business arrangements should not be destroyed unless necessary to do away with the prohibited evil.
An injunction was entered by the District Court to prohibit the continuation of the objectionable contracts. Violation of that injunction would threaten the appellant and its officers with civil and criminal contempt. United States v. Goldman, 277 U. S. 229, and Hill v. Weiner, 300 U. S. 105. The paucity of cases dealing with contempt of Sherman Act injunctions is, I think, an indication of how carefully the decrees are obeyed. The injunction is a far stronger sanction against further violation than the Sherman Act alone. Once in possession of facts showing violation, the Government would obtain a quick and summary punishment of the violator. Furthermore this case remains on the docket for the purpose of “enforcement of compliance” and “punishment of violations.” This provision should leave power in the court to enforce divestiture, if the injunction alone fails. Prompt and full compliance with the decree should be anticipated.
In my view such an order should be entered.
MR. JUSTICE FRANKFURTER, dissenting.
The force of the reasoning against divestiture in this case fortifies the doubts which I felt about the Government‘s position at the close of argument and persuades me to associate myself, in substance, with the dissenting views expressed by MR. JUSTICE JACKSON. Even “cartel” is not a talismanic word, so as to displace the rule of reason by which breaches of the Sherman Law are determined. Nor is “division of territory” so self-operating a category of Sherman Law violations as to dispense with analysis of the practical consequences of what on paper is a geographic division of territory.
While American Banana Co. v. United Fruit Co., 213 U. S. 347, presented a wholly different set of facts from those before us, the decision in that case does point to the fact that the circumstances of foreign trade may alter the incidence of what in the setting of domestic commerce would be a clear case of unreasonable restraint of trade.
Of course, it is not for this Court to formulate economic policy as to foreign commerce. But the conditions controlling foreign commerce may be relevant here. When as a matter of cold fact the legal, financial, and governmental policies deny opportunities for exportation from
MR. JUSTICE JACKSON, dissenting.
I doubt that it should be regarded as an unreasonable restraint of trade for an American industrial concern to organize foreign subsidiaries, each limited to serving a particular market area. If so, it seems to preclude the only practical means of reaching foreign markets by many American industries.
The fundamental issue here concerns a severely technical application to foreign commerce of the concept of conspiracy. It is admitted that if Timken had, within its own corporate organization, set up separate departments to operate plants in France and Great Britain, as well as in the United States, “that would not be a conspiracy. You must have two entities to have a conspiracy.”1 Thus, although a single American producer, of course, would not compete with itself, either abroad or at home, and could determine prices and allot territories with the same effect as here, that would not be a violation of the Act, because a corporation cannot conspire with itself. Government counsel answered affirmatively the question of the Chief Justice: “Your theory is that if you have a separate corporation, that makes the difference?”2 Thus, the Court applies the well-established conspiracy doctrine that what it would not be illegal for Timken to do alone may be illegal as a conspiracy when done by two legally separate persons. The doctrine now applied to foreign commerce is that foreign subsidiaries organized by an
But if we apply the most strict conspiracy doctrine, we still have the question whether the arrangement is an unreasonable restraint of trade or a method and means of carrying on competition in trade. Timken did not sit down with competitors and divide an existing market between them. It has at all times, in all places, had powerful rivals. It was not effectively meeting their competition in foreign markets, and so it joined others in creating a British subsidiary to go after business best reachable through such a concern and a French one to exploit French markets. Of course, in doing so, it allotted appropriate territory to each and none was to enter into competition with the other or with the parent. Since many foreign governments prohibit or handicap American corporations from owning plants, entering into contracts, or engaging in business directly, this seems the only practical way of waging competition in those areas.
The philosophy of the Government, adopted by the Court, is that Timken‘s conduct is conspiracy to restrain trade solely because the venture made use of subsidiaries. It is forbidden thus to deal with and utilize subsidiaries to exploit foreign territories, because “parent and subsidiary corporations must accept the consequences of maintaining separate corporate entities,”3 and that consequence is conspiracy to restrain trade. But not all agreements are conspiracies and not all restraints of trade are unlawful. In a world of tariffs, trade barriers, empire or domestic preferences, and various forms of parochialism from which we are by no means free, I think a rule that it
Notes
“B. Defendant is hereby enjoined and restrained, from the date of this judgment, from:
“1. Acquiring, directly or indirectly, any ownership interest in (by purchase or acquisition of assets or securities, or through the exercise of any option, or otherwise), or any control over, British Timken or French Timken, or any subsidiary, successor or assign thereof;
“2. Exercising any influence or control over the production, sales or other business policies of British Timken or French Timken, or any subsidiary, successor, assign, agent, sales representative, or distributor thereof;
“3. Causing, authorizing or knowingly permitting any officer, director, or employee of defendant or its subsidiaries to serve as an officer, director, or employee of British Timken or French Timken or of any subsidiary, successor, assign, agent, sales representative, or distributor thereof.”
Argument of government counsel reported 19 L. W. 3291 et seq.