Judge Throws Out Price-Fixing Case Against 7 Big Oil Firms

Saying there wasn’t enough evidence to warrant a trial, a federal judge in Los Angeles has thrown out a protracted antitrust lawsuit that accused seven big oil companies of fixing gasoline prices and contriving gasoline shortages in the early 1970s.

The cases, brought by California and four other states, dated to 1973 and sought to show a broad-based conspiracy to drive up gasoline prices. California officials said they will appeal Wednesday’s action by U.S. District Judge William Gray.

The lawsuit was one of the last of numerous antitrust complaints brought at the state and federal levels against the oil industry on similar grounds in the 1970s. Most were settled out of court and others were dismissed or dropped.

The defendants in this case were Atlantic Richfield, Chevron, Texaco, Mobil, Unocal, Exxon, Shell and the old Gulf Oil, now part of Chevron. Gray granted their motion for a summary judgment and ordered the states to pay the companies’ legal costs.

The first of the complaints was brought by Florida in 1973, and California sued in 1975. Their suits and those of Washington, Oregon and Arizona were combined. Gray’s decision doesn’t affect a companion suit brought by the city of Long Beach against some of the same defendants over crude oil prices.

“There is no sign of a paper trail pointing to a conspiracy, and the taking of more than 400 depositions has failed to produce any testimony disclosing knowledge of collusive action in setting or changing wholesale prices,” the judge said. “On the contrary, there is voluminous evidence . . . that there was dynamic and vigorous competition among the defendants.”

Thomas Dove, a California deputy attorney general, said he believes that the judge misapplied a recent Supreme Court ruling in granting the summary judgment. He said California, and probably the other states, will ask Gray to reconsider and will appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco if necessary.