A three-member Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals panel has affirmed a federal court’s antitrust case finding that plaintiff’s counsel failed to show how defendants Oldcastle Precast Inc. and three AT&T affiliates harmed competition in California and Nevada telephone vault markets and brought antitrust injury
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Sources: U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, San Francisco; CP staff
A three-member Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals panel has affirmed a federal court’s antitrust case finding that plaintiff’s counsel failed to show how defendants Oldcastle Precast Inc. and three AT&T affiliates harmed competition in California and Nevada telephone vault markets and brought antitrust injury. Attorneys for Jensen Enterprises Inc. had appealed a 2009 summary judgment wherein the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, San Francisco, ruled in defendantsÌ favor over alleged federal and state antitrust law violations.
The case stemmed from a 2006 complaint alleging Oldcastle Precast, along with Pacific Bell, Nevada Bell and SBC Services, had unreasonably restrained trade and conspired to monopolize telephone vaults for land-line connections. Plaintiffs challenged a contract requiring developers to purchase Oldcastle Precast product for properties served by AT&T infrastructure. They also contended the arrangement led to Oldcastle Precast capturing northern California sales of precast electrical vaults, often placed concurrently with telephone structures.