Hamilton C. Bushie and Doris Ann Bushie v. Stenocord Corporation

Hamilton and Doris Bushie (Bushie) were engaged in selling at retail and servicing Stenocord office dictating machines in the Phoenix, Arizona area, under a distributorship contract with defendant Stenocord Corporation. Steno-cord decided, however, to sell and service its machines in the area through its own outlet exclusively and, on January 6, 1965, gave Bushie notice that his distributorship contract was cancelled, effective the end of that month. In the meantime, Stenocord had engaged Tommy Sconce and Vern Irby to operate its new Branch Office. Sconce, who was to be the new manager, had previously been an independent dealer of Norelco dictating machines in the Phoenix area; Irby had worked for Sconce as his service technician.

Bushie then brought this suit to recover damages for the loss of his Steno-cord business. In his complaint, he asserted two claims for violation of the Sherman Act [ 15 U.S.C. §§ 1 ,2] a claim for a violation of the Robinson-Patman Act and a claim for breach of the distributorship contract.

The District Court granted defendant’s motion for summary judgment on both of the Sherman Act claims and dismissed them. Bushie has appealed.

The principal…