Westinghouse Electric Corp. v. Pacific Gas & Electric Co.

These are several of the vast number of civil anti-trust suits commenced against a number of manufacturers of electric products as an aftermath of the Government’s criminal prosecutions in Philadelphia. They are here on appeal from interlocutory orders of the district court.

At this time they tender a single issue of law, namely, does the fraudulent concealment of the existence of a cause of action based upon § 4 of the Clayton Act, 15 U.S.C. § 15 , toll the four-year statute of limitations provided in §§ 4B and 5(b) of the Act as amended by 15 U.S.C. §§ 15b and 16(b) ? Although this question has not previously been before this court, four other courts of appeal have recently passed on it. 1 All have answered in the affirmative. 2 Many of the contentions by these same appellants Were previously made and passed upon in the cited cases where they received full exposition. Since we also conclude that the answer to the question is “yes,” and for essentially the same reasons given by the other circuits, we shall refrain from an extended discussion of the various arguments urged upon us.

Capsulizing briefly, the other Courts of Appeals found there was a well enunciated and long…