Dahl, Inc. v. Roy Cooper Co., Inc.

In this antitrust action, brought pursuant to § 4 of the Clayton Act, appellant Dahl, Incorporated, seeks treble damages for injuries allegedly resulting from violations of §§ 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1 et seq. Dahl is the owner of the Paris Theatre in Palo Alto, California. Appellees include three exhibitors of motion pictures in the Palo Alto-Menlo Park area and ten motion-picture distributors. They are charged with conspiracy to restrain and monopolize trade in the distribution and exhibition of motion pictures in interstate commerce in the Palo Alto-Menlo Park area. The exhibitors are further charged with monopolizing and attempting to monopolize the exhibition of motion pictures in that area.

The Paris Theatre opened in July, 1961, under the management of Harold Snyder, president of Dahl, Inc. It was constructed by remodeling two vacant store buildings and had a capacity of 278 seats — the smallest in the Palo Alto-Menlo Park area. It was designed to operate as an “intimate ‘art’ theatre,” or “coffee-shop theatre,” and its announced intention was to confine its exhibition to “art film” — described by one of its witnesses as that which appeals to “a limited…