Columbia Steel Casting Co. v. Portland General Electric Co.

This case involves the antitrust doctrine of state action immunity. Appellee Columbia Steel (Columbia) sued appellant Portland General Electric (PGE) in district court, alleging that PGE had conspired with Pacific Power and Light (PP & L) to divide the market for electricity in Portland, Oregon. The district court granted summary judgment for Columbia, rejecting PGE’s claim that a 1972 order of the Public Utility Commission of Oregon (PUC) had authorized the market division, thereby conferring federal antitrust immunity under the state action doctrine created in Parker v. Brown, 317 U.S. 341 , 63 S.Ct. 307 , 87 L.Ed. 315 (1943). PGE appeals the summary judgment in favor of Columbia and the denial of its own motion for summary judgment. We now reverse.

I

Until the early 1970s, Portland General Electric and Pacific Power & Light competed with one another to provide electricity to the residents and businesses of Portland. This competition resulted in duplicate transmission lines and poles, substations and transformers throughout the City. In 1961, the Oregon legislature enacted a statute empowering the PUC to authorize division of markets into exclusive service territories in order…