Amarel

This appeal arose out of a complex, lengthy, and bitterly contested antitrust suit. Plaintiffs-appellants, independent California rice farmers, appeal the district court’s March 1994 judgment for defendants-appel-lees, a rice exporter, its president, and its lawyer. That judgment was based in part on a jury verdict for defendants as to plaintiffs’ Section 2 Sherman Act conspiracy claims and violations of the California Unfair Practices Act, and in part on the district court’s judgment as a matter of law for defendants as to plaintiffs’ claims for conspiracy to restrain trade in violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act and California’s Cartwright Act.

The litigants raise numerous procedural and substantive issues on appeal. Defendants insist plaintiffs lack standing to maintain this antitrust action. Plaintiffs allege several instances of trial error, challenge the district court’s rulings involving antitrust immunity under the Noerr-Pennington doctrine, and argue that it was error for the district court to enter judgment as a matter of law as to the restraint of trade claims on. which the jury was divided. Plaintiffs also appeal the district court’s post-trial award to…