Adams v. Davis County
Adams v. Davis County
Opinion of the Court
This mattér is before the Court on Defendant Davis County Towing Association’s (“DCTA”) Motion to Dismiss
I. BACKGROUND
Plaintiff is a tow truck operator located in Kaysville, Utah. Defendant Davis County is a political subdivision of the State of Utah. Defendant DCTA is a corporation located in Davis County with membership comprised of some, but not all, tow truck operators in the county. Plaintiff is not a member of DCTA.
Plaintiffs Amended Complaint asserts antitrust claims arising from the County’s use of a towing-rotation list for its towing referrals. Plaintiff alleges that prior to 2011 the County excluded from the list any towing companies that were not members of the DCTA. After receiving complaints about the use of that list, Plaintiff was briefly placed back in the towing rotation, while the County ceased relying on the DCTA for its referrals.
In September 2011, the County implemented a new towing-rotation list. To be included on the new list, towing companies were required to submit an application to the County, who then determined whether to accept or reject applicants. Plaintiff alleges that the County continued to work with the DCTA in the creation of the towing-rotation list, and that the process “refleet[s] the requirement previously set forth by the [DCTA]”
Moreover, the County informed towing companies of the requirements for the new rotation list at a DCTA meeting and did not otherwise provide notice to non-members, such as Plaintiff.
Plaintiff also alleges that Defendant Davis County has refused to contact Plaintiff even when motorists specifically request Plaintiffs services. Thus, Plaintiff asserts claims against Defendants based on Plaintiffs alleged exclusion from both the consent and non-consent towing markets in the county.
Plaintiff filed suit with this Court, alleging claims under the Sherman Act and Utah Antitrust Act. On October 30, 2013, Defendant DCTA filed a Motion to Dismiss. On December 30, 2013, Defendant Davis County filed a Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings. In a separate motion filed on December 30, 2013, Defendant Davis County joined Defendant DCTA’s Motion to Dismiss in full.
II. DISCUSSION .
Defendants, move to dismiss Plaintiffs claims under Federal Rules of Civil Proce-.
In considering a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted under Rule 12(b)(6), all well-pleaded factual allegations, as distin-' guished from conclusory allegations, are accepted as true and viewed in the light most favorable to Plaintiff as the nonmov-ing party.
“The court’s function on a Rule 12(b)(6) motion is not to weigh potential evidence that the parties might present at trial, but to assess whether the plaintiffs complaint alone is legally sufficient to state a claim for which relief may be granted.”
[OJnly a complaint that states a plausible claim for relief survives a motion to dismiss. Determining whether a complaint states a plausible claim for relief will ... be a context-specific task that requires the reviewing court to draw on its judicial experience and common sense. But where the well-pleaded facts do not permit the court to infer more than the mere possibility of misconduct, the complaint has alleged — -but it has not shown — that the pleader is entitled to relief.15
Defendants argue that the Court lacks subject matter jurisdiction over this suit because Plaintiffs federal claims are pleaded with insufficient particularity. Defendants contend that Plaintiffs Complaint lacks factual support to demonstrate a nexus between Defendants’ allegedly illegal conduct and interstate commerce, the existence of an agreement, or an unreasonable restraint of trade. Defendants also argue that federal and state-based immunity doctrines bar Plaintiffs claims.
A. SHERMAN ACT CLAIMS
Section 1 of the- Sherman Act states, “Every contract, combination in the form
“When Congress passed the Sherman Act in 1890, it took a narrow view of its power under the Commerce Clause. Subsequent decisions by [the U.S. Supreme Court] have permitted the reach of the Sherman Act to expand along with expanding notions of congressional power.”
“It is now hornbook law that to satisfy interstate commerce jurisdiction under the Sherman Act the challenged activity must occur in the flow of interstate commerce, or, though occurring on a purely local level, substantially affect interstate commerce.”
Plaintiffs Complaint alleges that “[t]he exclusionary towing rotation is applied on Interstate Highways including Interstate 15 and therefore impacts interstate commerce and interstate travel.”
1. In-commerce test
As the reach of the Commerce Clause has expanded, the utility of the in-commerce test under the Sherman Act has been minimized by the broader scope of the effect-on-commerce test.
The U.S. Supreme Court applied the in-commerce test to claims under the Clayton and Robinson-Patman Acts in Gulf Oil Corp. v. Copp Paving Co. The plaintiff in Gulf Oil Corp. was a concrete producer who asserted multiple antitrust claims against competitors in the asphaltic concrete market.
The next year, the Supreme Court applied the in-commerce test to a Sherman Act claim in Goldfarb v. Virginia State Bar. Goldfarb involved a challenge to minimum-fee schedules for legal services. In particular, the plaintiff challenged the minimum fees required for title examination. The Court found that “the necessary connection between the interstate transactions and the restraint of trade provided by the minimum-fee schedule is present because, in a practical sense, title examinations are necessary in real estate transactions to ensure a lien on a valid title of the borrower.”
In the instant case, Plaintiff alleges that Defendants’ conduct interferes with Plaintiffs participation in the consent and non-consent towing market on interstate highways. Plaintiff has not plausibly pleaded facts demonstrating that Plaintiffs services are, in any practical sense, part of the generation, transport, ór distribution of goods or services for interstate markets. Nor has Plaintiff pleaded facts demonstrating that its services are an inseparable element of a larger program dependent for its success on activity that affects interstate commerce.
Plaintiffs jurisdictional showing rests solely on the premise that because Plaintiff provides towing services on the interstate highway, its business is therefore in inter
Based on the foregoing, the Court finds that Plaintiff has not met its burden to plead plausible facts demonstrating that Defendant’s allegedly unlawful conduct meets the Sherman Act’s jurisdictional element under the in-commerce test.
2. Effect-on-commerce test
Wholly intrastate activities may fall within the scope of .the Sherman Act, so long as those activities substantially affect interstate commerce.
On one side of the circuit split aré those courts that apply a broader articulation of the rule. These courts place emphasis .on McLain’s explanation that plaintiffs are not required to make a particularized showing as to how the defendant’s conduct affects interstate commerce.
The Tenth Circuit, however, interprets McLain more narrowly.
Additionally, “[t]he determination of whether an activity has a ‘substantial effect’ on interstate commerce cannot be determined with mathematical nicety.”
[Tjhere is no bright line dividing eases in which the effect upon interstate commerce is sufficient to permit Congress to prohibit particular anticompetitive activity under the commerce clause from those cases in which it is not sufficient. In this area, perhaps more than in most, each case must turn on its own facts. As the limits of Congress’ power to regulate interstate commerce are approached, deciding the category in which a particular case falls becomes a matter of degree.48
Being a fact-specific inquiry, the Court begins its effect-on-commerce analysis by reviewing decisions from other courts involving similar factual scenarios — antitrust claims asserted by towing companies providing services on interstate highways. Defendant urges the Court to adopt the United States District Court for the District of Kansas’s analysis in J & D Automotive, Inc. v. A & A Tow Service, Inc.,
In J & D Automotive, a towing company asserted Sherman Act claims against competing towing companies and the City of Kansas City based on Plaintiffs claim that the city’s towing-rotation list was monopo
The United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas reached the same conclusion in Walker County Wrecker & Storage Ass’n v. Walker County.
In Kendrick v. City Council of Augusta, Georgia,
J & D Automotive, Walker County, and Kendrick all involve towing referral-business conducted on interstate highways, and three federal courts concluded that this was insufficient to demonstrate the jurisdictional element of a Sherman Act claim. These cases support Defendants’ position that the application of the towing-rotation list on 1-15 is inadequate, on its own, to establish subject matter jurisdiction in this case.
Other federal courts have reached the opposite conclusion. In Cowan v. Corley,
The United States District Court for the District of Colorado adopted Cowan's, analysis and applied it to a different type of business in Crabtree v. State of Colorado.
The holdings in J & D Automotive, Walker County, and Kendrick as compared to the holdings in Cowan and Crab-tree reveal a fundamental disagreement between the courts that decided those cases. Cowan and Crabtree conceive of interstate highways as being so fundamentally emblematic of interstate commerce that any conduct touching upon the interstate highways necessarily affects interstate commerce. J & D Automotive, Walker County, and Kendrick, however, are not so willing to assume that economic activity affects interstate commerce simply because it happens to touch upon roads that eventually extend across state borders.
The Court is not convinced that the simplistic premise underlying Cowan and Crabtree is correct. The towing services at issue in this case — and in J & D Automotive, Walker County, Kendrick, and Co-wan — originate on the side of the interstate highway and terminate at a local towing yard. It is not clear how a towing company’s proximity to the interstate highway affects interstate commerce, thereby bringing otherwise wholly intrastate activity into the reach of federal antitrust laws. Plaintiff is located in Davis County and has not alleged that its service area extends across state boundaries. Rather, Plaintiff is involved in wholly intrastate activity — towing disabled vehicles from the interstate highway in Davis County to a local towing yard. Without a specific factual connection between the towing services being performed and interstate commerce, the Court is not convinced that the presence of the interstate highway is adequate on its own to create federal jurisdiction. As the McLain Court warned, courts may not presume the nexus between a local activity — such as intrastate towing of automobiles — and interstate commerce. In the instant case, Plaintiff asserts no facts to demonstrate a nexus between interstate commerce and Defendant’s use of a towing-rotation list used to refer towing companies to perform wholly local towing services.
This Court has previously dismissed complaints for failing to allege a sufficient nexus between the challenged activities and interstate commerce when the complaints contained no mention of interstate commerce.
Even if the Court were to assume that Plaintiff pleaded facts demonstrating a nexus between a relevant aspect of interstate commerce and Defendants’ allegedly unlawful conduct, Plaintiff also has not pleaded facts demonstrating that Defendant’s conduct has a not insubstantial effect on interstate commerce. As explained above, Plaintiff has pleaded no facts demonstrating any actual effect on interstate commerce, much less a not insubstantial effect.
Based on the foregoing, the Court finds that Plaintiff has not pleaded facts sufficient to demonstrate a nexus between a relevant aspect of interstate commerce and Defendants’ allegedly unlawful conduct or that the Defendants’ challenged conduct has a not insubstantial effect on interstate commerce based on practical economics. Having concluded that Plaintiff failed to satisfy the jurisdictional element of both Sherman Act claims, the Court will not reach the remaining arguments advanced by the parties.
The Court will dismiss both of Plaintiffs Sherman Act claims without prejudice, to allow Plaintiff the opportunity to allege facts demonstrating the requisite nexus between the challenged conduct and a relevant aspect of interstate commerce, and a not insubstantial effect on interstate commerce.
B. REMAINING CLAIMS
Having concluded that the Court lacks subject matter jurisdiction over both federal claims, the Court must reevaluate its jurisdictional authority over this suit. Under United Mine Workers v. Gibbs,
III. CONCLUSION
Based on the foregoing, it is hereby
ORDERED that Defendant Davis County’s Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings (Docket No. 21) is GRANTED without prejudice. It is further
ORDERED that Defendant DCTA’s Motion to Dismiss (Docket No. 10) is DENIED as moot.
. Docket No. 10.
. Docket No. 21.
. Id.
.Id. at 5.
. Id. at 4.
. Id. at 5.
. Muscogee (Creek) Nation v. Okla. Tax Comm’n, 611 F.3d 1222, 1227 n. 1 (10th Cir. 2010).
. Id. (citation omitted).
. Id.
. GFF Corp. v. Associated Wholesale Grocers, Inc., 130 F.3d 1381, 1384 (10th Cir. 1997).
. Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 547, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007).
. Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009).
. Id. (quoting Twombly, 550 U.S. at 557, 127 S.Ct. 1955) (alteration in original).
. Miller v. Glanz, 948 F.2d 1562, 1565 (10th Cir. 1991).
. Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 679, 129 S.Ct. 1937 (citations and internal quotation marks omitted).
. 15 U.S.C. § 1 (2012).
. Id. § 2.
. Hosp. Bldg. Co. v. Trs. of Rex Hosp., 425 U.S. 738, 743 n. 2, 96 S.Ct. 1848, 48 L.Ed.2d 338 (1976).
. Goldfarb v. Va. State Bar, 421 U.S. 773, 784, 95 S.Ct. 2004, 44 L.Ed.2d 572 (1975) (quoting United States v. Se. Underwriters Ass'n, 322 U.S. 533, 553, 64 S.Ct. 1162, 88 L.Ed. 1440 (1944)).
. Gulf Oil Corp. v. Copp Paving Co., 419 U.S. 186, 197 n. 12, 95 S.Ct. 392, 42 L.Ed.2d 378 (1974).
. Crane v. Intermountain Health Care, Inc., 637 F.2d 715, 720 (10th Cir. 1981) (en banc).
. McLain v. Real Estate Bd. of New Orleans, Inc., 444 U.S. 232, 242, 100 S.Ct. 502, 62 L.Ed.2d 441 (1980).
. Docket No. 3, at 5.
. Id. at 6.
. ABA Section of Antitrust Law, Antitrust Law Developments 37-38 (5th ed. 2002).
. McLain, 444 U.S. at 241-42, 100 S.Ct. 502.
. Gulf Oil Corp., 419 U.S. at 189-90, 95 S.Ct. 392.
. Id. at 191, 95 S.Ct. 392.
. Id. at 195, 95 S.Ct. 392.
. Goldfarb, 421 U.S. at 784, 95 S.Ct. 2004 (footnote omitted).
. Id. at 784-85, 95 S.Ct. 2004 (quoting United States v. Frankfort Distilleries, 324 U.S. 293, 297, 65 S.Ct. 661, 89 L.Ed. 951 (1945)) (footnote omitted).
. Gulf Oil Corp., 419 U.S. at 198, 95 S.Ct. 392.
. Id.
. Id.
. See Crane, 637 F.2d at 720.
. McLain, 444 U.S. at 246, 100 S.Ct. 502 (citation and internal quotation marks omit- - ted).
. Id. at 242-43, 100 S.Ct. 502.
. ABA Section of Antitrust Law, supra, at 39.
. Id.
. See, e.g., United States v. ORS, Inc., 997 F.2d 628, 629 n. 4 (9th Cir. 1993) ("[T]he government need only allege that ORS’s business activities have a substantial effect on interstate commerce, not the 'more particularized showing' that the alleged illegal conduct has a substantial effect on interstate commerce (quoting McLain, 444 U.S. at 242-43, 100 S.Ct. 502)”).
. See Anesthesia Advantage, Inc. v. Metz Grp., 912 F.2d 397, 400-01 (10th Cir. 1990) (footnote omitted) (discussing circuit split and collecting cases, including those from other cir
. Crane, 637 F.2d at 723.
. Id.
. Id.
. McLain, 444 U.S. at 242, 100 S.Ct. 502.
. Lease Lights, Inc. v. Pub. Serv. Co. of Okla., 701 F.2d 794, 798 (10th Cir. 1983).
. Anesthesia Advantage, 912 F.2d at 401; see also McLain, 444 U.S. at 242-43, 100 S.Ct. 502 ("Petitioners need not make the more particularized showing of an effect on interstate commerce caused by the alleged [conduct], or by those other aspects of respondents’ activity that are alleged to be unlawful.”).
. Crane, 637 F.2d at 727 (quoting Rasmussen v. Am. Dairy Ass’n, 472 F.2d 517, 526-27 (9th Cir. 1972)).
. No. 84-2329, 1987 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 846 (D.Kan. Jan. 30, 1987).
. 604 F.Supp. 28 (S.D.Tex. 1984).
. Id. at 30.
. 516 F.Supp. 1134 (S.D.Ga. 1981).
. Id. at 1140.
. 814 F.2d 223 (5th Cir. 1987).
. Id. at 225.
. Id. at 226.
. Id.
. No. 88-C-1012, 1989 WL 91119 (D.Colo. Aug. 9, 1989).
. See Park City Mun. Corp. v. Bureau of Reclamation, No. 1:09-CV-144 TS, 2010 WL 4568687, at *5 (D.Utah Nov. 3, 2010); U.S. Gen., Inc. v. Draper City, No: 2:05-CV-917 TS, 2006 WL 1594184, at *2 (D.Utah Jun. 7, 2006).
. Docket No. 3, at 5.
. Id. at 6.
. 383 U.S. 715, 86 S.Ct. 1130, 16 L.Ed.2d 218 (1966).
. Bank of Okla., N.A., Grove Branch v. Islands Marina, Ltd., 918 F.2d 1476, 1479-80 (10th Cir. 1990) (citing Gibbs, 383 U.S. at 725, 86 S.Ct. 1130).
. Estate of Harshman v. Jackson Hole Mountain Resort Corp., 379 F.3d 1161, 1165 (10th Cir. 2004).
. 28 U.S.C. § 1367(c) (2012).
. Estate of Harshman, 379 F.3d at 1165 (citing City of Chi. v. Int’l Coll, of Surgeons, 522 U.S. 156, 173, 118 S.Ct. 523, 139 L.Ed.2d 525 (1997); Gibbs, 383 U.S. at 726, 86 S.Ct. 1130).
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Bill ADAMS d.b.a. Snap Towing v. DAVIS COUNTY, and the Davis County Towing Association
- Status
- Published