United States v. Consolidated Laundries Corp.

United States v. Consolidated Laundries Corp.

Opinion

 [*567]  The appellants were convicted on both counts of a two count indictment returned on January 31, 1957, charging violations of sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act, as amended, 15 U.S.C.A. §§ 1, 2. After pleading not guilty, the sixteen defendants waived trial by jury. Trial began before Judge Palmieri on January 20, 1958 and the Government rested on March 12. The defendants then moved for acquittal. Their motions being denied, they rested without introducing [**3]  any evidence. On June 16, 1958 the trial judge filed findings of fact and conclusions of law which denied the motions for acquittal and found all the defendants guilty. Fines aggregating $ 451,000 were imposed, and four individual defendants were given short prison sentences and were ordered to pay the costs of the prosecution. Each defendant duly appealed from the judgment against him. Thereafter, on November 20, 1959, all defendants moved for a new trial pursuant to Rule 33 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, 18 U.S.C.A. Their motions, submitted on affidavits, were argued in January 1960 and were denied on April 25, 1960. From this order the defendants have also appealed.

The record covering both appeals presents many questions. Various legal points are common to several appellants, and the court wishes to express to counsel its appreciation of their skill in having so organized their briefs and arguments as to avoid unnecessary repetition.

The defendants-appellants are eight corporations engaged in the linen supply business in New York and/or New Jersey (herein referred to as 'linen supplier defendants'), two incorporated trade associations referred to respectively [**4]  as 'New York Institute' and 'New Jersey Council' and six individuals, of whom four are officers of one or more of the linen supplier defendants and the other two are respectively the secretary of the New York Institute and the secretary of the New Jersey Council.

The linen supply business consists of periodically delivering to customers, such as hotels, restaurants, barbershops and doctors' offices, supplies of clean linen and picking up soiled linen to be laundered and returned to the customer clean. Frequently the linen supplied to a customer is owned by the linen supplier and when this is the case it may involve a substantial investment by the linen supplier.

Full case includes Shepard's, Headnotes, Legal Analytics from Lex Machina, and more.