Gerald Carlin v. Dairyamerica, Inc.

This appeal raises two issues: (1) whether the judicially created “filed rate doctrine,” which typically has been utilized in common carrier and public utility litigation, is applicable in a class action lawsuit seeking monetary and injunctive relief under state law arising from the misreporting of pricing data to the United States Department of Agriculture (“USDA”), where the data in turn were used to set a minimum price structure for raw milk sales; and (2) if the doctrine is applicable in that situation, whether the district court erred when it dismissed the plaintiffs’ state causes of action on the ground that the filed rate doctrine barred such claims, even though the court found that “[i]t is not disputed that [the] USDA determined that the rates calculated ... were erroneous and that other rates should have applied based on corrected pricing inputs.”

BACKGROUND

1. Statutory and Regulatory Framework as to Milk Pricing

As observed in Zuber v. Allen, 396 U.S. 168, 172-73 , 90 S.Ct. 314 , 24 L.Ed.2d 345 (1969):

Congress passed the Agricultural Marketing Agreement Act of 1937 ( 7 U.S.C. § 601 et seq.) (“AMAA”) “in order to establish and maintain orderly marketing…