70
widespread confusion about the scope of the "sham" exception to the doctrine of Eastern Railroad Presidents Conference v. Noerr Motor Freight, Inc., 365 U. S. 127 (1961), and Mine Workers v. Pennington, 381 U. S. 657 (1965), see ante, at 55, n. 3, 5 share three important characteristics with this case: The alleged injury to competition was defined by the prayer for relief in the antitrust defendant's original action; there was no unethical conduct or collateral harm "external to the litigation or to the result reached in the litigation"; 3 and there had been no series of repetitive claims. Each of those courts concluded, as this Court does today, that allegations of subjective anticompetitive motivation do not make an otherwise reasonable lawsuit a sham.4
In each of the five other cases cited by the Court, the plaintiff alleged antitrust violations more extensive than the filing of a single anticompetitive lawsuit. In three of those cases the core of the alleged antitrust violation lay in the act of petitioning the government for relief: One involved the repetitive filing of baseless administrative claims,5 another in-3 Omni Resource Development Corp. v. Conoco, Inc., 739 F. 2d 1412, 1414 (CA9 1984) (Kennedy, J.).
4 See McGuire Oil Co. v. Mapco, Inc., 958 F. 2d 1552 (CA11 1992) (unsuccessful action to enjoin alleged violations of Alabama's Motor Fuel Marketing Act not a sham); Hydro-Tech Corp. v. Sundstrand Corp., 673 F. 2d 1171 (CA10 1982) (unsuccessful action alleging misappropriation of trade secrets not a sham); Eden Hannon & Co. v. Sumitomo Trust & Banking Co., 914 F. 2d 556 (CA4 1990) (successful action imposing constructive trust on profits derived from breach of nondisclosure agreement not a sham); Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. v. Redd Horne, Inc., 749 F. 2d 154 (CA3 1984) (successful copyright infringement not a sham); South Dakota v. Kansas City Southern Industries, Inc., 880 F. 2d 40 (CA8 1989) (successful action to enjoin breach of contract not a sham; the court was careful to point out, however, that success does not "categorically preclude a finding of sham." Id., at 54, n. 30).
5 Litton Systems, Inc. v. American Telephone & Telegraph Co., 700 F. 2d 785 (CA2 1983), cert. denied, 464 U. S. 1073 (1984). The Second Circuit found that AT&T's continued filing of administrative tariffs long after
Page: Index Previous 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007