Knutson

ORDER AWARDING ATTORNEYS’ FEES

In this action, plaintiffs move for an award of attorneys’ fees in the amount of approximately $200,000 following a series of proceedings before this Court and the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The underlying action was initiated in August, 1973. Plaintiffs, independent newspaper dealers, brought suit against defendant publishers and certain officers of the newspapers they distributed alleging various violations of Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C. §§ 1 , 2. At the conclusion of the liability portion of a bifurcated trial on September 23, 1974, this Court rejected three of the plaintiffs’ claims but found that defendants had imposed an illegal vertical price restraint in violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act. Knutson v. Daily Review, Inc., 383 F.Supp. 1346, 1357 (N.D.Cal.1974). However, following the damages trial, the Court concluded that plaintiffs failed to prove either the fact or measure of their injury inasmuch as the Court was not persuaded that plaintiffs would have raised their prices and thus obtained greater profits in the absence of the restraint and thus declined to award any damages despite the finding on § 1…