Seattle Totems Hockey Club, Inc., Eldred W. Barnes and Vincent H. D. Abbey v. The National Hockey League, Northwest Sports Enterprises, Ltd.

This appeal arises out of a private antitrust action brought in federal district court by appellees Vincent Abbey and Eldred Barnes, owners of the Seattle Totems, an ice hockey team in the now-defunct Western Hockey League. Named as defendants were the National Hockey League (NHL), Northwest Sports, owners of the Vancouver Canucks of the NHL, and various League officers and club owners. The suit charges defendants with unlawful monopolization of the ice hockey industry in North America and seeks, among other relief, to have certain agreements between Abbey and Barnes and Northwest Sports relating to the sale and management of the Seattle Totems declared void and unenforceable.

Approximately twenty-seven months after the filing of the antitrust action, Northwest Sports sued Abbey and Barnes in British Columbia Supreme Court for damages for breach of the same agreements that are being challenged as illegal and unenforceable in the appellees’ antitrust action in federal district court. Abbey and Barnes then moved in the federal court action to enjoin Northwest Sports from prosecuting its contract claim in British Columbia on the ground that the claim constitutes a compulsory…