United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Chattanooga Foundry & Pipe Works v. Atlanta, 203 U.S. 390 (1906)

Chattanooga Foundry and Pipe Works v. Atlanta

No. 94

Argued November 9, 12, 1906

Decided December 3, 1906

203 U.S. 390

Syllabus

By express provision of the Act of July 2, 1890, 26 Stat. 209, a city is a person within the meaning of section 7 of that act, and can maintain an action against a party to a combination unlawful under the act by reason of which it has been forced to pay a price for an article above what it is reasonably worth.

A person whose property is diminished by a payment of money wrongfully induced is injured in his property.

Where Congress has power to make acts illegal, it can authorize a recovery for damage caused by those acts although suffered wholly within the boundaries of one state.

Although the sale may not have been so connected with the unlawful combination as to be unlawful, the motives and inducements to make it may be so affected by the combination as to constitute a wrong.

The five-year limitation in § 1047, Rev.Stat., does not apply to suits brought under § 7 of the Act of July 2, 1890, but by the silence of that act, the matter is left under § 721, Rev.Stat., to the local law.

The three-year limitation in § 2773, Tennessee Code, for actions for injuries to personal or real property, applies to injuries falling upon some object more definite than the plaintiff's total wealth and the general ten-year limitation in § 2776 for all actions not expressly provided for controls actions of this nature brought under § 7 of the Act of July 2, 1890.

127 F. 23, 101 F.9d 0, affirmed.

The facts are stated in the opinion.

Page 203 U. S. 395