Harlan F. Stone

“ Whatever restraints respondents' distribution system may then have imposed, and whether the later adopted practice of showing double features was or was not itself a product of an unlawful conspiracy, petitioners were entitled, as of right, to continue to purchase and show films which had not had prior showing free of the restraints of the unlawful distribution system. The fair value of petitioners' right thus to continue their business depended on its capacity to make profits. ”

“ There was evidence that respondent distributors and exhibitors conspired to give to the distributor-controlled or affiliated theatres preferential playing positions in the release system over the positions allotted to independent competing theatres, including that of petitioners, with the result that petitioners' theatre was unable to obtain feature films until the first week of 'general release,' or ten weeks after the end of the Loop run. ”

“ The gist of the complaint is that by reason of the conspiracy, petitioners were prevented from securing pictures for exhibition in their theatre until after the preferred exhibitors had been able to show them in the earlier and more desirable runs, and that petitioners have thus been discriminated against in the distribution of feature films in favor of competing theatres owned or controlled by some of the respondents. ”

“ In the one case, the defendant, in an effort to extend its monopoly, refused to sell to the plaintiff goods which had regularly been a part of his stock in trade. In the other, the defendants, competing sellers, engaged in destructive price competition with the plaintiff in execution of an unlawful conspiracy. In the first case, the plaintiff sought to establish his damage by comparing his profits before and after the unlawful interference with his business. ”

“ And in cases where a wrongdoer has incorporated the subject of a plaintiff's patent or trade-mark in a single product to which the defendant has contributed other elements of value or utility, and has derived profits from the sale of the product, this Court has sustained recovery of the full amount of defendant's profits where his own wrongful action has made it impossible for the plaintiff to show in what proportions he and the defendant have contributed to the profits. ”

“ Rental contracts between distributors and exhibitors undertake to furnish films to the exhibitors for stipulated rentals, and provide for the 'playing position' in which the motion picture theatre is to exhibit the films relative to the 'playing position' of other theatres in the competitive area. ”

“ The jury's verdict was, as the court below held, based on the damage suffered by petitioners in consequence of the deprivation, by the discriminatory operation of the release system, of their demonstrated freedom to rent and exhibit some films which had not had prior showing. ”

“ Respondents' argument is, that notwithstanding the force of this evidence, it is impossible to establish any measure of damage, because the unlawful system which respondents have created has precluded petitioners from showing that other conditions affecting profits would have continued without change unfavorable to them during the critic l period if that system had not been established, and petitioners had conducted their business in a free competitive market. ”