GMMC

The trial court certified this Cartwright Act case as a class action involving class members who are residents of 19 different states. (Bus. & Prof. Code, § 16700 et seq.) The moving party plaintiff was National Metals, Inc. (National Metals or Plaintiff), a large-scale copper purchaser. Both this action and a companion action (Heliotrope v. J. P. Morgan (Super. Ct. San Diego County, No. GIC749280)) were brought by such copper purchasers against numerous defendants (as pertinent here, Defendant and petitioner Global Minerals & Metals Corporation (GMMC) and Defendants and petitioners J. P. Morgan & Co., Incorporated et al. (J. P. Morgan), sometimes collectively Defendants.) Plaintiffs’ theory in both actions is that these defendants have manipulated the price of copper on the London Metals Exchange (LME) and on the American copper futures exchange, COMEX, through combinations in restraint of trade in violation of the Cartwright Act and through conspiracies to do so, to the detriment of copper purchasers in their private transactions on the physical or cash copper markets, as represented by the putative class representatives.

Defendant and petitioner GMMC contends the…