Brunswick Corp. v. Pueblo Bowl-O-Mat, Inc.

Facts

In the late 1950s, the bowling industry experienced rapid expansion, with Brunswick’s sales of bowling equipment rising dramatically. Most of Brunswick’s sales were on credit. When the industry declined sharply in the early 1960s, Brunswick faced serious financial difficulties with over $100 million in delinquent accounts. To address this problem, Brunswick began acquiring and operating defaulting bowling centers when their equipment could not be resold. By the time of trial, Brunswick had acquired 222 centers, making it the largest operator of bowling centers in the United States, though it controlled only 2% of all bowling centers nationwide. The acquisitions at issue occurred in three markets where the plaintiffs operated: Pueblo, Colorado; Poughkeepsie, New York; and Paramus, New Jersey. The plaintiffs alleged these acquisitions violated Section 7 of the Clayton Act and sought damages representing the profits they would have earned had the acquired centers gone out of business. The jury awarded damages based on this theory, which the district court trebled. The Court of Appeals, while ordering a new trial due to improper jury instructions, endorsed the plaintiffs’ theory that they could recover damages for any loss “causally linked” to “the mere presence of the violator in the market.”