Ford Wholesale Company, Inc. Of San Jose, a Corporation v. Fibreboard Paper Products Corporation

Before CHAMBERS and KOELSCH, Circuit Judges, and EAST, District Judge.

The plaintiff-appellant (Ford) instituted this private antitrust action for damages under Section 4 of the Clayton Act [ 15 U.S.C. § 15 ] against the defendant-appellee Fibreboard Paper Products Corporation (Fibreboard) and the remaining above-named defendants alleging that Fibreboard and the other defendants “combined and conspired to monopolize, attempted to monopolize and did monopolize trade and commerce in the relevant market in violation of Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act [ 15 U.S.C. §§ 1 , 2].”

The proceedings in the District Court progressed through a jury verdict in favor of Ford for a substantial amount.

Thereafter, the District Court, 344 F.Supp. 1323 , upon various motions of Fibreboard concluded “that the evidence on the interstate issue [was] wholly insufficient, or at least so insubstantial and lacking in probative value, that there is no evidence whatsoever from which the jury might rationally have concluded that defendants restrained interstate commerce;”, set aside the jury verdict and judgment thereon in favor of Ford and on May 30, 1972, entered judgment for Fibreboard that…