Alpha Distributing Co. of California, Inc. v. Jack Daniel Distillery, Lem Motlow Prop., Inc.

For reasons thought adequate by Jack Daniel Distillery and its parent company, Brown-Forman Distillers Corporation, the distributorship in California of Alpha Distributing Company for Jack Daniel, a popular brand of Tennessee bourbon whiskey, has been cancelled. The distillery companies say this is nothing more than the operation of the free enterprise system. Alpha, plaintiff and appellant, asserts many reasons which it claims establish that the distillers do not have a right to deprive it of the custom, which was indeed profitable.

The distributorship was apparently cancelled prior to January 1, 1961, but effective on or about that date. Alpha filed an action on December 15, 1960, seeking assorted relief, including damages and an injunction.

The case started in the state court, but because- of diversity of citizenship was quickly transferred to federal court.

A motion for preliminary injunction was filed on December 28, 1960, but no proof in support of the motion (which came in affidavit form) came before January 18, 1961, after a new distributor had taken over. Counter-affidavits of the distillers soon appeared. On the affidavits, the trial court ordered, on June 16, 1961,…