Ward v. Auctioneers Assn. of So. Cal.

WOOD (W. J.), J.

The nature of this action is indicated from the title given by plaintiff, ‘1 Complaint for Damages For Unlawful Monopoly under the Cartwright Act $100,000.” Plaintiff has appealed from a judgment in favor of defendants after their demurrer to the amended complaint was sustained without leave to amend.

In his amended complaint plaintiff named as defendants Auctioneer Association of Southern California, a corporation, an association bearing the same name as the corporation, and the individual members of the association. He alleged that plaintiff was a licensed auctioneer; that plaintiff and defendants were engaged in the business of conducting auction sales, and that defendants owned and controlled 98 per cent of the auction business; that prior to March 15, 1943, the auction business was open and competitive and that plaintiff and defendants had free access to advise the public that they were engaged in the auction business and of the times and places of sales and merchandise to be sold; that beginning March 15, 1943, defendants conspired, confederated and combined to carry out restrictions in said trade, business and commerce, and in furtherance thereof formed Auctioneers Association of Southern California and excluded plaintiff therefrom; that for many years prior to the formation of the association all auctioneers had used as their method of advising the public of auction sales to be conducted by them and for soliciting auction business, the auction pages of the Sunday editions of the Los Angeles Times and the Los Angeles Examiner, and that prior to March 15, 1943, these newspapers had printed all auction advertising on the same pages; that in furtherance of the conspiracy defendants obtained agreements from the publishers to reserve all advertising space on said pages to the members of the association and that the newspapers thereafter refused to accept or print' any adver

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tising of plaintiff on the pages referred to, although plaintiff had written contracts with the papers to do so. Plaintiff further alleged that the acts and conduct of defendants prevented competition in the auction business and that as a result he was damaged, for which he seeks a money judgment.

The Cartwright Act, which was enacted in 1907, is now a part of the Business and Profession Code and is to be found in the sections beginning with section 16700. Plaintiff asserts that the facts alleged in his complaint constitute a violation of section 16720 of the code. This section provides in part: “A trust is a combination of capital, skill or acts by two or more persons for any of the following purposes: (a) to create or carry out restrictions in trade or commerce.” Subdivision “a” is followed by a number of other subdivisions containing statements of other purposes, all of which are declared to he illegal by the act.