A.B.C. Packard, Inc., a Corporation v. General Motors Corporation, a Corporation

This is an action by Mr. M. O. Anderson who, either individually or through a corporation controlled by him, was from 1936 to June 30, 1953 a distributor-dealer in Buiek automobiles manufactured by the defendant. Mr. Anderson sued for damages allegedly arising from a fraud perpetrated on him by defendant when it terminated the distributor-dealer relationship, and oifered to make Anderson a dealer.

Appellant is a Washington corporation and appellee is a Delaware corporation. Jurisdiction in the district court derived fi’om diversity of citizenship and the rights of the parties are governed by state law. 28 U.S.C. § 1332 . Angel v. Bullington, 1947, 330 U.S. 183 , 67 S.Ct. 657 , 91 L.Ed. 832 . This Court has jurisdiction of the appeal. 28 U.S.C. § 1291 .

Appellant states two theories to sustain recovery — first, the nondisclosure by General Motors of General Motors’ secret policy to terminate the Anderson dis tributorship when it became more profitable for General Motors to distribute Buick automobiles itself; secondly, misrepresentations made to Anderson by General Motors to the effect that the Anderson distributorship would not be terminated so long as its performance was…