Valuskis

Subsequent to the decision of the Supreme Court in United States v. Paramount Pictures, 334 U.S. 131 , 68 S.Ct. 915 , 92 L.Ed. 1260 , a large number of theatre owners and operators throughout the United States filed suits against the defendants named in the Paramount action, claiming damages because of the conspiracy as found in that case. In those actions the defendants generally pleaded the statute of limitations as the complaints were filed many years after accrual of the damages claimed by the various plaintiffs.

One of the questions presented to the courts for determination was the period of the statute of limitations in such antitrust cases. This Court, among others, held the applicable period of limitation in California was either one or three years, Manny v. Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc., D.C., 116 F.Supp. 807 . In that case as well as others filed under the anti-trust laws plaintiffs contended the running of the statute of limitations had been suspended during pendency of the equity suits brought by the United States against the defendants, United States v. Paramount Pictures, supra.

In the Paramount case a number of the distributing and producing companies were named as…