Fowler Manufacturing Company, a Corporation v. H. H. Gorlick, and Cross-Appellants

Can the amount of a discrimination in prices or allowances between business competitors be recovered under the Robinson-Patman Act as direct damages? 15 U.S.C. § 13 and § 15.

In the case before us Judge Lindberg of the Western District of Washington, on a jury-waived trial, found that such discriminations had been engaged in by a manufacturer of electric water heaters against a jobber of plumbing supplies in the amount of $8,540.60 and awarded judgment on this basis against the manufacturer for treble damages in the sum of $25,621.80.

We affirm.

I.

The general question posed has not been adjudicatively passed upon by the Supreme Court. The lower federal courts have been divided on it. The two leading cases on the opposing views are Elizabeth Arden Sales Corporation v. Gas Blass Co., 150 F.2d 988 , 161 A.L.R. 370 (8 Cir. 1945), and Enterprise Industries, Inc., v. Texas Co., 240 F.2d 457 (2 Cir. 1957).

Arden held that the amount of such a discrimination can properly be made the basis and measure of a general damage award, where the evidence does not establish a greater consequential or special injury. It took the view that, within legal and commercial realities, the non-favored…