Knocke v. Standard Oil Co.

Briscoe, J., delivered the opinion of the court. The questions to be decided, on this appeal, arise upon demurrers filed bv the plaintiff to the defendants’ pleas to the plaintiffs’ amended declaration. The court below held the amended declaration to be bad in substance and insufficient in law, and entered a judgment on the demurrers in favor of the defendants for costs. From this judgment the plaintiffs have taken this appeal. ²⁷⁹ As ilit1 principal question presented is one of pleading, and relates to the sufficiency ml non of the declaration, a full and coireet statement of the pleadings in the case will "bei necessary, in reaching a proper conclusion on the record now before ns.

The declaration contains two counts. The first count alleges: “That on or about the first day of June, in the year nineteen hundred and sixteen, the plaintiffs were engaged in the business of buying and selling oils, gasoline and oil products, and were building for themselves and bad built for themselves an extensive and profitable business, and that they were then buying their oils, gasoline and oil products in the open market, but mostly from Sherwood Brothers, in the City of Baltimore; and that the defendants, for the purpose of materially interfering with the business of these plaintiffs, and with the intent to defraud them of their said business, and in furtherance of a conspiracy on the part of the said defendants to monopolize, interfere with and take away the business of these plaintiffs, approached the plaintiffs and fraudulently induced them to stop dealing with the said Sherwood Brothers and others and to deal exclusively with the said defendants upon the false and fraudulent pretense and assurance that the said defendants would supply all the requirements of the plaintiffs for at least five years; and the said defendants, in furtherance of their scheme to interfere with and monopolize and take away the business of the plaintiffs, fraudulently induced the plaintiffs to buy oils, gasoline and oil products from the defendants; and the defendants falsely and fraudulently pretended that they would sell, and assured the plaintiffs that they would sell to them as much of these oils, gasoline and oil products as the plaintiffs might then and there need or require in their business, or might thereafter at any time during the ensuing five years require in their said business whatever the quantities might he; and that the said defendants induced the plaintiffs in furtherance of said conspiracy and scheme as aforesaid to ²⁸⁰ stop purchasing oils, gasoline and oil products from everybody except the said defendants; and that the said defendants induced the plaintiffs to extend their business and to purchase property and erect thereon large tanks and to purchase additional equipment and trucks and vehicles, and induced the plaintiffs to establish a large and profitable business, and that the plaintiffs thereupon purchased property and erected thereon said large tanks and purchased additional equipment and trucks and vehicles and did establish a very large and profitable business, and that all of said improvements were made and all of said expenses were incurred with the full knowledge and at the instance of the said defendants, and that these expenditures amounted to about fifty thousand dollars ($50,000); and that the said plaintiffs continued to build up and increase their business; and after the said plaintiffs, with unusual skill and industry and attendance upon their business, had built up and established and enlarged their said business till it became a considerable one and was ripe for the monopoly of the said defendants, the said defendants, in furtherance of their scheme and conspiracy to interfere with and monopolize and take away the business of the said plaintiffs, without any just cause or reason of any kind or character, immediately and without notice cut off their supply of oils, gasoline and oil products, and commenced and continued to serve directly the customers of the said plaintiffs; and that the plaintiffs had secured a large number of customers and had built up a large business; and that the said defendants, in furtherance of their scheme and artifice and conspiracy aforesaid, broke up the business of the plaintiffs and took over said business to themselves and served the customers of the plaintiffs; and that the business of the plaintiffs thus became lost to them and their plant comparatively valueless by reason of the conspiracy and wrong aforesaid; and that the said defendants, in furtherance of the said scheme and conspiracy, waited till it was rendered by the fraud of ²⁸¹ said defendants impossible for the plaintiffs to procure oils, gasoline and oil products in the open market, and then ruthlessly shut down on the plaintiffs, although said defendants had ample supplies, and took over their business and customers in furtherance of the said conspiracy; and that as the result of said fraudulent conspiracy and artifice and scheme, and as the result of said material and wrongful interference on the part of the defendants with the business of the plaintiffs, and that as the result of the tortious taking away and