Schwegmann Brothers et al. v. Calvert Distillers Corp. (341 U.S. 384)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided May 21, 1951 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 341 U.S. 384 · 71 S. Ct. 745
- Docket
- No. 442
- Argued
- April 9, 1951
- Decided
- May 21, 1951
- Term
- October Term 1950
- Vote
- 6–3
- Majority author
- Justice Douglas
- Issue area
- Economic Activity
- Disposition
- Reversed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
How the Justices voted
- Majority
- Chief Justice Vinson, Justice Reed, Justice Douglas (wrote), Justice R. H. Jackson, Justice Clark, Justice Minton
- Dissenting
- Justice Black, Justice Frankfurter (wrote), Justice Burton
Opinion excerpt
Mr. Justice Douglas delivered the opinion of the Court. Respondents, Maryland and Delaware corporations, are distributors of gin and whiskey. They sell their products to wholesalers in Louisiana, who in turn sell to retailers. Respondents have a price-fixing scheme whereby they try to maintain uniform retail prices for their products. They endeavor to make retailers sign price-fixing contracts under which the buyers promise to sell at not less than the prices stated in respondents’ schedules. They have indeed succeeded in getting over one hundred Louisiana retailers to sign these agreements. Petitioner, a retailer in New Orleans, refused to agree to the price-fixing scheme and sold respondents’ products at a cut-rate price. Respondents thereupon brought this suit in the District Court by reason of diversity of citizenship to enjoin petitioner from selling the products at less than the minimum prices fixed by their schedules. It is clear from our decisions under the Sherman Act (26 Stat. 209) that this interstate marketing arrangement would be illegal, that it would be enjoined, that it would draw civil and criminal penalties, and that no court would enforce it. Fixing minimum prices, like other types of price fixing, is illegal per se. United States v. Socony-Vacuum Oil Co., 310 U. S. 150; Kiefer-Stewart Co. v. Seagram & Sons, 340 U. S. 211. Resale price maintenance was…
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