Petitioners, claiming individually and on behalf of a certain
class of real estate purchasers and sellers, instituted this
private antitrust action in Federal District Court against
respondents, certain real estate firms and trade associations and a
class consisting of real estate brokers who had transacted realty
brokerage business in the Greater New Orleans area during the four
years preceding the filing of the complaint. Petitioners alleged,
inter alia, that respondents had engaged in a price-fixing
conspiracy in violation of § 1 of the Sherman Act through an
agreement to conform to a fixed rate of brokerage commissions on
sales of residential property. The complaint also included
allegations that respondents' activities were "within the flow of
interstate commerce and have an effect upon that commerce," and
that respondents assisted their clients in securing financing and
title insurance which came from sources outside the State.
Respondents moved to dismiss the complaint for failure to state a
claim under the Sherman Act, contending that their activities were
purely local in nature, and did not substantially affect interstate
commerce. The District Court granted the motion to dismiss the
complaint, holding that, under
Goldfarb v. Virginia State
Bar, 421 U. S. 773,
there must be a substantial volume of interstate commerce involved
in the overall real estate transaction and the challenged activity
must be an essential, integral part of the transaction, inseparable
from its interstate aspects; and that here a broker's participation
in the presumably interstate aspects of securing title insurance
and financing was only incidental, rather than indispensable. The
Court of Appeals affirmed, holding that, under
Goldfarb v.
Virginia State Bar, supra, Sherman Act jurisdiction did not
exist, because petitioners had failed to demonstrate that real
estate brokers are either necessary or integral participants in the
interstate aspects of residential real estate financing and title
insurance.
Held: The complaint should not have been dismissed at
this stage of the proceedings. Pp.
444 U. S.
241-247.
(a) To establish jurisdiction under the Sherman Act, a plaintiff
must allege the relationship between the activity involved and some
aspect of
Page 444 U. S. 233
interstate commerce and, if these allegations are controverted,
must submit evidence to demonstrate either that the defendants'
activity is itself in interstate commerce or, if it is local in
nature, that it has an effect on some other appreciable activity
demonstrably in interstate commerce. Here, petitioners may
establish the jurisdictional element of a Sherman Act violation by
demonstrating a substantial effect on interstate commerce generated
by respondents' brokerage activity, and petitioners need not make
the more particularized showing of an effect on interstate commerce
caused by the alleged conspiracy to fix commission rates, or by
those other aspects of respondents' activity that are alleged to be
unlawful. Pp.
444 U. S.
241-243.
(b) The courts below misinterpreted
Goldfarb v. Virginia
State Bar, supra, as requiring that petitioners demonstrate
that real estate brokers are either necessary or integral
participants in the interstate aspects of residential real estate
financing and title insurance. The
Goldfarb holding was
not addressed to the "effect on commerce" test of jurisdiction, and
in no way restricted it to those challenged activities that have an
integral relationship to an activity in interstate commerce. Pp.
444 U. S.
243-245.
(c) Here, what was submitted to the District Court shows a
sufficient basis for satisfying the Act's jurisdictional
requirements under the "effect on commerce" theory so as to entitle
petitioners to go forward. The record makes it clear that there is
a basis for petitioners to proceed to trial, where there will be
opportunity to establish that an appreciable amount of commerce is
involved in the financing of residential property in the Greater
New Orleans area and in the insuring of titles to such property,
that this appreciable commercial activity has occurred in
interstate commerce, and that respondents' activities which
allegedly have been infected by a price-fixing conspiracy have, as
a matter of practical economics, a not insubstantial effect on the
interstate commerce involved. Pp.
444 U. S.
245-247.
583 F.2d 1315, vacated and remanded.
BURGER, C.J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which all
other Members joined, except MARSHALL, J., who took no part in the
consideration or decision of the case.
Page 444 U. S. 234
MR. CHIEF JUSTICE BURGER delivered the opinion of the Court.
The question in this case is whether the Sherman Act extends to
an agreement among real estate brokers in a market area to conform
to a fixed rate of brokerage commissions on sales of residential
property.
I
The complaint in this private antitrust action, filed in the
Eastern District of Louisiana in 1975, alleges that real estate
brokers in the Greater New Orleans area have engaged in a
price-fixing conspiracy in violation of § 1 of the Sherman Act, ch.
647, 26 Stat. 209, as amended, 15 U.S.C. § 1. No trial has as yet
been had on the merits of the claims, since the complaint was
dismissed for failure to establish the interstate commerce
component of Sherman Act jurisdiction.
The complaint asserts a claim individually and on behalf of that
class of persons who employed the services of a respondent real
estate broker in the purchase or sale of
Page 444 U. S. 235
residential property in the Louisiana parishes of Jefferson or
Orleans (the Greater New Orleans area) during the four years
preceding the filing of the complaint. The respondents are two real
estate trade associations, six named real estate firms, and that
class of real estate brokers who, at some time during the period
covered by the complaint, transacted realty brokerage business in
the Greater New Orleans area and charged a brokerage fee for their
services. The unlawful conduct alleged is a continuing combination
and conspiracy among the respondents to fix, control, raise, and
stabilize prices for the purchase and sale of residential real
estate by the systematic use of fixed commission rates, widespread
fee splitting, suppression of market information useful to buyers
and sellers, and other allegedly anticompetitive practices. The
complaint asserts that respondents' conduct has injured petitioners
in their business or property because the fees and commissions
charged for brokerage services have been maintained at an
artificially high and noncompetitive level, with the effect that
the prices of residential properties have been artificially raised.
The complaint seeks treble damages and injunctive relief as
authorized by §§ 4 and 16 of the Clayton Act, 38 Stat. 731, 737, as
amended, 15 U.S.C. §§ 15, 26.
The allegations of the complaint pertinent to establishing
federal jurisdiction are:
(1) that the activities of the respondents are "within the flow
of interstate commerce and have an effect upon that commerce";
(2) that the services of respondents were employed in connection
with the purchase and sale of real estate by "persons moving into
and out of the Greater New Orleans area";
(3) that respondents "assist their clients in securing financing
and insurance involved with the purchase of real estate in the
Greater New Orleans area," which
"financing and insurance are obtained from sources outside the
State of Louisiana and move in interstate commerce into the State
of Louisiana through the activities of the [respondents];"
and
Page 444 U. S. 236
(4) that respondents have engaged in an unlawful restraint of
"interstate trade and commerce in the offering for sale and sale of
real estate brokering services."
Respondents moved in the District Court to dismiss the complaint
for failure to state a claim within the ambit of the Sherman Act.
This motion was supported by a memorandum and by the affidavits of
two officers of respondent Real Estate Board of New Orleans. The
affiants testified that real estate brokers in Louisiana were
licensed to perform their function in that State only, that there
was no legal or other requirement that real estate brokers be
employed in connection with the purchase or sale of real estate
within Louisiana, and that the affiants had personal knowledge of
such transactions occurring without the assistance of brokers. The
function of real estate brokers was described as essentially
completed when buyer and seller had been brought together on
agreeable terms. The affiants also stated that real estate brokers
did not obtain, and were not instrumental in obtaining, financing
of credit sales, save in a few special cases, nor were they
involved with examination of titles in connection with the sale of
real estate or the financing of such sales.
The memorandum in support of the motion to dismiss sought to
distinguish this case from
Goldfarb v. Virginia State Bar,
421 U. S. 773
(1975), in which we held that § 1 of the Sherman Act had been
violated by conformance with a bar association's minimum fee
schedule that established fees for title examination services
performed by attorneys in connection with the financing of real
estate purchases. The respondents construed the applicability of
Goldfarb as limited by certain language in the opinion
that described the activities of lawyers in the examination of
titles as an inseparable and integral part of the interstate
commerce in real estate financing. 421 U.S. at
421 U. S.
784-785. In contrast, with respect to this case,
respondents asserted on the basis of the affidavits that "the role
of . . . real estate brokers in financing such purchases is neither
integral nor inseparable." Respondents
Page 444 U. S. 237
contended (1) that the activities of respondent real estate
brokers were purely local in nature; (2) that the allegation that
respondents assisted in securing financing or insurance in
connection with the purchase of real estate had been controverted
by the affidavits; and (3) that the conclusory assertion in the
complaint that respondents' activities "are within the flow of
interstate commerce and have an effect upon that commerce" was
insufficient, by itself, to establish federal jurisdiction.
Petitioners' response to the motion to dismiss asserted that,
since adequate pretrial discovery up to that time had been
precluded pursuant to a pretrial order, petitioners had not had a
full opportunity to substantiate the jurisdictional allegations of
their complaint. Petitioners advanced two independent theories to
support federal jurisdiction: (1) that respondents' activities
occurred within the stream of interstate commerce; and (2) that
even if respondents' activities were wholly local in character,
they depended upon and affected the interstate flow of both
services and people.
Accompanying the response was an affidavit stating that one of
the named petitioners had employed the services of a respondent
real estate broker to assist in an interstate relocation. There was
also an affidavit from a loan guarantee officer of the Veterans'
Administration disclosing that VA-insured loans for residential
purchases in the Greater New Orleans area for the years 1973-1975
amounted to $46.3 million, $45.9 million, and $53.5 million,
respectively.
After briefing on the jurisdictional issue, the District Court
heard oral argument and received postargument briefs. The court
then held a conference with counsel, the substance of which was
carefully recorded in the minute entries by the District Judge:
"The Court advised counsel that it appears plaintiffs may
satisfy said jurisdictional requirement only by bringing the facts
of this case within the parameters of the
Page 444 U. S. 238
Supreme Court's holding in
Goldfarb v. Virginia State
Bar. . . . It is recognized, however, that further discovery
is needed on the issue of
Goldfarb's applicability
sub
judice. More specifically, such discovery should determine
whether, in the first place, there is the requisite interdependence
between the brokerage activity of defendants and the financing
and/or insuring of real estate transactions in the New Orleans area
and, secondly, whether there is a substantial involvement of
interstate commerce in such real estate transactions via the
financing and/or insurance aspects thereof."
Following this conference, petitioners deposed nine witnesses,
who produced various documents. The deponents included government
officials, real estate brokers, mortgage lenders, and real estate
title insurers. This evidence was directed to establishing that an
appreciable amount of interstate commerce was involved in various
aspects of the purchase and sale of residential property in the
Greater New Orleans area.
The deposition testimony of the president of Security Homestead
Association, one of nearly 40 savings and loan institutions in the
Greater New Orleans area, revealed that, during the period covered
by the complaint, the Association lent in excess of $100 million
for local purchases of residential property. The Association
obtained loan capital from deposits by investors, some of whom
lived out of state, and from borrowings from the Federal Home Loan
Bank of Little Rock, Ark. Toward the close of the relevant period,
the Association entered the interstate secondary mortgage market,
in which existing mortgages were sold to raise new capital for
future loans.
Another deponent was the president of Carruth Mortgage Corp., an
Arkansas corporation doing business in Louisiana, Mississippi, and
Texas. Its business was to originate home loans, then to sell the
financial paper in the secondary mortgage market. The testimony
showed that, during the
Page 444 U. S. 239
relevant period, Carruth made in excess of $100 million in loans
on residential real estate in the Greater New Orleans area. The
overwhelming proportion of these home loans was guaranteed by
either the Federal Housing Administration or the Veterans'
Administration. With respect to the FHA-guaranteed loans, Carruth
collected and remitted premiums for the guarantee to the FHA in
Washington, D C., on a periodic basis for each account.
Both deponents testified that real estate brokers often play a
role in securing financing information on behalf of a borrower and
in bringing borrower and lender together, but that, after the
introductory phases, the substance of the mortgage transaction
progressed without the involvement of a real estate broker. The
president of Carruth testified that his company required title
insurance on all the home loans it made. This testimony was
accompanied by the deposition of the president of Lawyers Title
Insurance Co. of Louisiana, which revealed that each of the nearly
30 title insurance companies then writing coverage in the Greater
New Orleans area was a subsidiary or branch of a corporation in
another state.
Following the close of the discovery period and the filing of
additional briefs, the District Court took the matter under
submission and, having considered the memoranda of counsel and the
relevant documents of record, issued a memorandum opinion and order
granting the motion to dismiss the complaint.
432 F.
Supp. 982 (1977). The court stated that the ground upon which
respondents had challenged jurisdiction was that "brokerage
activities are wholly intrastate in nature and, since they neither
occur in nor substantially affect interstate commerce, are beyond
the ambit of federal anti-trust prohibition."
Id. at 983.
In line with the view expressed at the earlier conference,
see
supra at
444 U. S.
237-238, the District Court viewed the jurisdictional
inquiry as narrowly confined: the question was whether the facts of
this case
Page 444 U. S. 240
could be brought within the
Goldfarb holding. In the
District Court's view,
"any inquiry based upon [
Goldfarb] must be two-fold: 1)
whether a 'substantial' volume of interstate commerce is involved
in the overall real estate transaction, and 2) whether the
challenged activity is an essential, integral part of the
transaction, and inseparable from its interstate aspects."
432 F. Supp. at 984. The District Court assumed,
arguendo, that the title insurance and financing aspects
of the New Orleans residential real estate market were interstate
in character, but ruled that federal jurisdiction was not
established, because, in its view,
"the inescapable conclusion to be drawn from the evidence is
that the participation of the broker in these (presumably
interstate) phases of the real estate transaction is an incidental,
rather than indispensable, occurrence in the transactional chain of
events."
Id. at 985.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
affirmed the dismissal of the complaint. 583 F.2d 1315 (1978).
Examining first the specific acts complained of in this case, the
Court of Appeals concluded that they failed to satisfy the "in
commerce" test. Realty was viewed as a quintessentially local
product, and the brokerage activity described in the pleadings was
found to occur wholly intrastate.
Id. at 1319. Second,
that court rejected petitioners' "effect on commerce" argument. The
interpretation of
Goldfarb that had guided the District
Court's analysis was adopted by the Court of Appeals, which ruled
that,
"unlike the attorneys in
Goldfarb, whose participation
in title insurance was statutorily mandated, real estate brokers
are neither necessary nor integral participants in the 'interstate
aspects' of realty financing and insurance."
583 F.2d at 1321-1323.
The Court of Appeals noted that the District Court had styled
its judgment as a dismissal under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure
12(b)(6) for failure to state a claim upon which relief could be
granted, to be treated as a summary judgment insofar as matters
outside of the pleadings were considered.
Page 444 U. S. 241
The Court of Appeals concluded that the appropriate designation
of the dismissal was for lack of subject matter jurisdiction under
Rule 12(b)(1), and affirmed the dismissal on that basis.
We granted certiorari. 441 U.S. 942.
II
A
The broad authority of Congress under the Commerce Clause has,
of course, long been interpreted to extend beyond activities
actually in interstate commerce to reach other activities that,
while wholly local in nature, nevertheless substantially affect
interstate commerce.
Wickard v. Filburn, 317 U.
S. 111 (1942);
United States v. Darby,
312 U. S. 100
(1941). This Court has often noted the correspondingly broad reach
of the Sherman Act.
Hospital Building Co. v. Rex Hospital
Trustees, 425 U. S. 738,
425 U. S. 743
(1976);
United States v. Employing Plasterers Assn.,
347 U. S. 186,
347 U. S. 189
(1954);
United States v. South-Eastern Underwriters Assn.,
322 U. S. 533,
322 U. S. 558
(1944);
Atlantic Cleaners & Dyers, Inc. v. United
States, 286 U. S. 427,
286 U. S. 435
(1932). During the near century of Sherman Act experience, forms
and modes of business and commerce have changed along with changes
in communication and travel, and innovations in methods of
conducting particular businesses have altered relationships in
commerce. Application of the Act reflects an adaptation to these
changing circumstances.
Compare United States v. E. C. Knight
Co., 156 U. S. 1,
156 U. S. 12-15
(1895),
and Hopkins v. United States, 171 U.
S. 578,
171 U. S.
587-592 (1898),
with Mandeville Island Farms, Inc.
v. American Crystal Sugar Co., 334 U.
S. 219,
334 U. S.
231-235 (1948),
and United States v. Employing
Plasterers Assn., supra at
347 U. S.
189.
The conceptual distinction between activities "in" interstate
commerce and those which "affect" interstate commerce has been
preserved in the cases, for Congress has seen fit to preserve
Page 444 U. S. 242
that distinction in the antitrust and related laws by limiting
the applicability of certain provisions to activities demonstrably
"in commerce."
United States v. American Building Maintenance
Industries, 422 U. S. 271
(1975);
Gulf Oil Corp. v. Copp Paving Co., 419 U.
S. 186 (1974);
FTC v. Bunte Bros., Inc.,
312 U. S. 349
(1941). It can no longer be doubted, however, that the
jurisdictional requirement of the Sherman Act may be satisfied
under either the "in commerce" or the "effect on commerce" theory.
Hospital Building Co. v. Rex Hospital Trustees, supra at
425 U. S. 743;
Gulf Oil Corp. v. Copp Paving Co., supra at
419 U. S.
194-195;
United States v. Women's Sportswear
Manufacturers Assn., 336 U. S. 460,
336 U. S. 464
(1949);
Mandeville Island Farms, Inc. v. American Crystal Sugar
Co., supra at
334 U. S.
235-237.
Although the cases demonstrate the breadth of Sherman Act
prohibitions, jurisdiction may not be invoked under that statute
unless the relevant aspect of interstate commerce is identified; it
is not sufficient merely to rely on identification of a relevant
local activity and to presume an interrelationship with some
unspecified aspect of interstate commerce. To establish
jurisdiction, a plaintiff must allege the critical relationship in
the pleadings, and, if these allegations are controverted, must
proceed to demonstrate by submission of evidence beyond the
pleadings either that the defendants' activity is itself in
interstate commerce or, if it is local in nature, that it has an
effect on some other appreciable activity demonstrably in
interstate commerce.
Gulf Oil Corp. v. Copp Paving Co.,
supra at
419 U. S.
202.
To establish the jurisdictional element of a Sherman Act
violation, it would be sufficient for petitioners to demonstrate a
substantial effect on interstate commerce generated by respondents'
brokerage activity. Petitioners need not make the more
particularized showing of an effect on interstate commerce caused
by the alleged conspiracy to fix commission rates, or by those
other aspects of respondents' activity that
Page 444 U. S. 243
are alleged to be unlawful. The validity of this approach is
confirmed by an examination of the case law. If establishing
jurisdiction required a showing that the unlawful conduct itself
had an effect on interstate commerce, jurisdiction would be
defeated by a demonstration that the alleged restraint failed to
have its intended anticompetitive effect. This is not the rule of
our cases.
See American Tobacco Co. v. United States,
328 U. S. 781,
328 U. S. 811
(1946);
United States v. Socony-Vacuum Oil Co.,
310 U. S. 150,
310 U. S. 225,
n. 59 (1940). A violation may still be found in such circumstances,
because, in a civil action under the Sherman Act, liability may be
established by proof of either an unlawful purpose or an
anticompetitive effect.
United States v. United States Gypsum
Co., 438 U. S. 422,
438 U. S. 436,
n. 13 (1978);
see United States v. Container Corp.,
393 U. S. 333,
393 U. S. 337
(1969);
United States v. National Assn. of Real Estate
Boards, 339 U. S. 485,
339 U. S. 489
(1950);
United States v. Socony-Vacuum Oil Co., supra at
310 U. S.
224-225, n. 59.
Nor is jurisdiction defeated in a case relying on
anticompetitive effects by plaintiff's failure to quantify the
adverse impact of defendant's conduct.
See Zenith Radio Corp.
v. Hazeltine Research, Inc., 395 U. S. 100,
395 U. S.
123-125 (1969);
Bigelow v. RKO Radio Pictures,
Inc., 327 U. S. 251,
327 U. S.
265-266 (1946). Even where there is an inability to
prove that concerted activity has resulted in legally cognizable
damages, jurisdiction need not be impaired, though such a failure
may confine the available remedies to injunctive relief.
See
Georgia v. Pennsvlania R. Co., 324 U.
S. 439,
324 U. S. 452
463 (1945);
Keogh v. Chicago & N.W. R. Co.,
260 U. S. 156
(1922).
B
The interpretation and application of our holding in
Goldfarb v. Virginia State Bar, 421 U.
S. 773 (1975), has figured prominently in this case. The
District Court held that petitioners could establish federal
jurisdiction only if the facts of
Page 444 U. S. 244
this case could be brought within
Goldfarb. As
previously noted, as interpreted by that court,
"any inquiry based upon [
Goldfarb] must be twofold: 1)
whether a 'substantial' volume of interstate commerce is involved
in the overall real estate transaction, and 2) whether the
challenged activity is an essential, integral part of the
transaction and inseparable from its interstate aspects."
432 F. Supp. at 984. The Court of Appeals took a similar view of
Goldfarb, holding that Sherman Act jurisdiction did not
exist because petitioners had failed to demonstrate that real
estate brokers are either necessary or integral participants in the
interstate aspects of residential real estate financing and title
insurance. 583 F.2d at 1322.
It is with the second phase of the analysis of the District
Court and of the Court of Appeals that we disagree. The facts of
Goldfarb revealed an application of the state bar
association's minimum fee schedule to fix fees for attorneys' title
examination services. Since the financing depended on a valid and
insured title we concluded that title examination was "an integral
part" of the interstate transaction of obtaining financing for the
purchase of residential property and, because of the
"inseparability" of the attorneys' services from the title
examination process, we held that the legal services were, in turn,
an "integral part of an interstate transaction." 421 U.S. at
421 U. S.
784-785. By placing the
Goldfarb holding on the
available ground that the activities of the attorneys were within
the stream of interstate commerce, Sherman Act jurisdiction was
established. The
Goldfarb holding was not addressed to the
"effect on commerce" test of jurisdiction, and in no way restricted
it to those challenged activities that have an integral
relationship to an activity in interstate commerce. To adopt the
restrictive interpretation urged upon us by respondents would
return to a jurisdictional analysis under the Sherman Act of an era
long past. It has been more than 30 years since this Court stated:
"At this late day we are not
Page 444 U. S. 245
willing to take that long backward step."
Mandeville Island
Farms, Inc. v. American Crystal Sugar Co., 334 U.S. at
334 U. S.
235.
C
On the record thus far made, it cannot be said that there is an
insufficient basis for petitioners to proceed at trial to establish
Sherman Act Jurisdiction. It is clear that an appreciable amount of
commerce is involved in the financing of residential property in
the Greater New Orleans area and in the insuring of titles to such
property. The presidents of two of the many lending institutions in
the area stated in their deposition testimony that those
institutions committed hundreds of millions of dollars to
residential financing during the period covered by the complaint.
The testimony further demonstrates that this appreciable commercial
activity has occurred in interstate commerce. Funds were raised
from out-of-state investors and from interbank loans obtained from
interstate financial institutions. Multistate lending institutions
took mortgages insured under federal programs which entailed
interstate transfers of premiums and settlements. Mortgage
obligations physically and constructively were traded as financial
instruments in the interstate secondary mortgage market. Before
making a mortgage loan in the Greater New Orleans area, lending
institutions usually, if not always, required title insurance,
which was furnished by interstate corporations. Reading the
pleadings, as supplemented, most favorably to petitioners, for
present purposes we take these facts as established.
At trial, respondents will have the opportunity, if they so
choose, to make their own case contradicting this factual showing.
On the other hand, it may be possible for petitioners to establish
that, apart from the commerce in title insurance and real estate
financing, an appreciable amount of interstate commerce is involved
with the local residential real estate market arising out of the
interstate movement of people, or otherwise.
Page 444 U. S. 246
To establish federal jurisdiction in this case, there remains
only the requirement that respondents' activities which allegedly
have been infected by a price-fixing conspiracy be shown "as a
matter of practical economics" to have a not insubstantial effect
on the interstate commerce involved.
Hospital Building Co. v.
Rex Hospital Trustees, 425 U.S. at
425 U. S. 745;
see Goldfarb v. Virginia State Bar, supra at
421 U. S. 784,
n. 11;
Burke v. Ford, 389 U. S. 320,
389 U. S.
321-322 (1967). It is clear, as the record shows, that
the function of respondent real estate brokers is to bring the
buyer and seller together on agreeable terms. For this service, the
broker charges a fee generally calculated as a percentage of the
sale price. Brokerage activities necessarily affect both the
frequency and the terms of residential sales transactions.
Ultimately, whatever stimulates or retards the volume of
residential sales, or has an impact on the purchase price, affects
the demand for financing and title insurance, those two commercial
activities that on this record are shown to have occurred in
interstate commerce. Where, as here, the services of respondent
real estate brokers are often employed in transactions in the
relevant market, petitioners at trial may be able to show that
respondents' activities have a not insubstantial effect on
interstate commerce.
It is axiomatic that a complaint should not be dismissed unless
"it appears beyond doubt that the plaintiff can prove no set of
facts in support of his claim which would entitle him to relief."
Conley v. Gibson, 355 U. S. 41,
355 U. S. 45-46
(1957);
see 5 C. Wright & A Miller, Federal Practice
and Procedure §§ 1202, 1205-1207, 1215-1224, 1228 (1969). This rule
applies with no less force to a Sherman Act claim, where one of the
requisites of a cause of action is the existence of a demonstrable
nexus between the defendants' activity and interstate commerce.
Here, what was submitted to the District Court shows a sufficient
basis for satisfying the Act's jurisdictional requirements under
the "effect on commerce" theory so as to
Page 444 U. S. 247
entitle the petitioners to go forward. We therefore conclude
that it was error to dismiss the complaint at this stage of the
proceedings. The judgment of the Court of Appeals is vacated, and
the case is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this
opinion.
Vacated and remanded.
MR. JUSTICE MARSHALL took no part in the consideration or
decision of this case.