City of Burbank v. General Electric Co.

Before us are five appeals by four appellants in companion cases arising from private treble damage actions filed as an outgrowth of the government’s antitrust prosecutions in the electrical equipment *828 industry. These appeals are from the Southern District of California, Central Division. The electrical equipment convictions were obtained, of course, in 1961 in the District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

The companion appeals are from an order, applicable to the several cases, sustaining a motion made by certain defendants 1 under Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 12(f) to strike all reference in some 124 companion cases to certain previous criminal proceedings had between certain defendants in each action and the United States of America, including a recital of the defendants’ pleas entered in said criminal proceedings.

The motion was granted in a memorandum of decision and a subsequent order.

The district court had jurisdiction of the cause pursuant to 15 U.S.C. §§ 1 and 15. Since the district court in its order characterized the question before it in terms required by 28 U.S.C. § 1292 (b), 3 and since another panel of this court granted leave to appeal,…