MISSOURI. STATUTES. LAWS OF 1891, PAGE 186. POOLS, TRUSTS, AND CONSPIRACIES; UNLAWFUL COMBINA TIONS. AN ACT providing for the punishment of pools, trusts and conspiracies, to control prices, and as to evidence and prosecution in such cases. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Missouri as follows, § 1. Any corporation organized under the laws of this or any other state or country for transacting or conducting any kind of business in this state, or any partnership or individual or other association of persons whatsoever, who shall create, enter into, become a member of or a party to any pool, trust, agreement, combination, confederation or understanding with any other corporation, partnership, individual or any other person or association of persons, to regulate or fix the price of any article of manufacture, mechanism, merchandise, commodity, convenience, repair, any product of mining, or any article or thing whatsoever, or the price or premium to be paid for insuring property against loss or damage by fire, lightning or storm, or to maintain said price when so regulated or fixed, or shall enter into, become a member of or a party to any pool, agreement, contract, combination or confederation to fix or limit the amount or quantity of any article of manufacture, mechanism, merchandise, commodity, convenience, repair, any product of mining, or any article or thing whatsoever, or the price or premium to be paid for insuring property against loss or damage by fire, lightning or storm, shall be deemed and adjudged guilty of a conspiracy to defraud, and be subject to penalties as provided in this act: And provided, That 1 Section 1 is given as amended by Laws of 1895, page 237; Laws of 1897, page 208; and Laws of 1899, page 314. if such insurance companies or their agents or the board of fire underwriters doing business in any city of this state, shall combine in any city of this state, either directly or indirectly, or agree or attempt to agree, directly or indirectly, to fix or regulate the price of premium to be paid for insuring property located within or outside of such city against loss or damage by fire, lightning or storm, such company so violating the provisions of this act, either by itself, its agents, or by any such board of underwriters, shall be taken and deemed to have forfeited its right to do business in this state, and shall become liable to all the penalties and forfeitures provided for by the provisions of this act. § 1a. That from and after the passage of this act, all arrangements, contracts, agreements or combinations between persons or corporations, or between persons or any association of persons and corporations, designed or made with a view to lessen, or which tend to lessen full and free competition in the importation, manufacture or sale of any article, product or commodity in this state, and all arrangements, combinations, contracts or agreements, whereby, or under the terms of which it is proposed, stipulated, provided, agreed or understood that any person, association of persons or corporations doing business in this state, shall deal in, sell or offer for sale in this state, any particular or specified article, product or commodity, and shall not during the continuance or existence of any such arrangement, combination, contract or agreement, deal in, sell or offer for sale in this state, any competing article, product or commodity, are hereby declared to be against public policy, unlawful and void; and any person, association of persons or corporations becoming a party to any such arrangement, contract, agreement or combination shall be deemed and adjudged guilty of a conspiracy to defraud, and subject to the penalties provided for in the act of which this act is amendatory. § 2. It shall not be lawful for any corporation to issue or to own trust certificates, or for any corporation, agent, officer or employe, or the directors or stockholders of any corporation, to enter into any combination, contract or agreement with any person or persons, corporation or corporations, or with any stockholder or director thereof, the purpose and effect of which combination, contract or agreement shall be 1 Section 1a was added by Laws of 1899, page 208. 252A -10 to place the management or control of such combination or combinations, or the manufactured product thereof, in the hands of any trustee or trustees, with the intent to limit or fix the price or lessen the production and sale of any article of commerce, use or consumption, or to prevent, restrict or diminish the manufacture or output of any such article. 1 § 3. Any corporation or company, individual, firm or association violating any of the provisions of this act, shall forfeit not less than five dollars nor more than one hundred dollars for each day it shall continue to do so, to be recovered by an action in the name of the state, at the relation of the attorney-general, circuit or prosecuting attorney-moneys thus recovered to go into the county school fund of the county in which the cause accrues, and in the city of St. Louis into the school fund of said city. § 4. Any contract or agreement in violation of any provision of the preceding sections of this act shall be absolutely void. § 5. Any purchaser of any article or commodity from any individual, company or corporation transacting business contrary to any provision of the preceding sections of this act shall not be liable for the price or payment of such article or commodity, and may plead this act as a defense to any suit for such price or payment. § 6. Any corporation created or organized by or under the laws of this state, which shall violate any provisions of the preceding sections of this act shall thereby forfeit its corporate rights and franchises, and its corporate existence shall, upon proper proof being made thereof in any court of competent jurisdiction in this state, be by the court declared forfeited, void and of non-effect, and shall thereupon cease and determine; and any corporation created or organized by or under the laws of any other state or country, which shall violate any provisions of the preceding sections of this act, shall thereby forfeit its right and privilege thereafter to do any business in this state, and upon proper proof being made thereof in any court of competent jurisdiction in this state, its rights and privileges to do business in this state shall be declared forfeited; and in all proceedings to have such forfeiture declared, proof that any person who has been acting 1Section 3 is given as amended by Laws of 1895, page 237. as the agent of such foreign corporation in transacting its business in this state has been, while acting as such agent, and in the name, behalf or interest of such corporation, violating any provision of the preceding sections of this act, shall be received as prima facie proof of the act of the corporation itself; and it shall be the duty of the clerk of said court to certify the decree thereof to the secretary of state, and if it be an insurance company, also to the superintendent of the insurance department, who shall take notice and be governed thereby as to the corporate powers and rights of said corporation. § 6a.1 That whenever the corporate rights and franchises of any corporation organized under the laws of this state have been declared forfeited by the judgment of a court of competent jurisdiction for any violation of the provisions of this act, or of the act of which this act is amendatory, and whenever the right and privilege of any corporation organized under the laws of any other state or country to do business in this state has been declared forfeited by the judgment of a court of competent jurisdiction for any violation of the provisions of this act or of the act of which this act is amendatory, it shall hereafter be unlawful for any person, association of persons or corporations to deal in, sell or offer for sale in this state any article, product or commodity made, produced or manufactured, in whole or in part, by any corporation whose rights, franchises or privileges have been so declared to be forfeited; and the foregoing provisions of this section are hereby made applicable in all respects to the successor or assigns of any corporation whose rights, franchises or privileges have been so forfeited. Any person violating the provisions of this section is hereby declared to be guilty of a felony, and upon conviction, shall be punished by imprisonment in the penitentiary for a term not exceeding three years, or by imprisonment in the county jail for a term not exceeding one year, or by a fine not less than one hundred dollars nor more than one thousand dollars, or by both such fine and jail imprisonment: Provided, That no statement made by any person in any affidavit made under the provisions of sections seven and eight of the act of which this act is amendatory shall be competent as evidence against such person in any criminal prosecutions brought under this section. 1 Section 6a was added by Laws of 1897, page 208. § 7. It shall be the duty of the secretary of state, on or about the first day of July of each year, to address to the president, secretary or treasurer of each incorporated company doing business in this state, a letter of inquiry as to whether the said corporation has all or any part of its business or interest in or with any trust, combination or association of persons or stockholders, as named in the preceding provisions of this act, and to require an answer, under oath of the president, secretary or treasurer or any director of said company. A form of affidavit shall be enclosed in said letter of inquiry, as follows: AFFIDAVIT. STATE OF MISSOURI, County of I SS: do solemnly swear that I am the (president, secretary, [treasurer] or director) of the corporation known and styled duly incorporated under the on the laws of day of — -, 18-, and now transacting or conducting business in the state of Missouri, and that I am duly authorized to represent said corporation in the making of this affidavit, and I do further solemnly swear that the said known and styled as aforesaid, has not, since the day day of (naming the day upon which this act takes effect) created, entered into or become a member of or a party to, and was not, on the nor at any day since that date, and is not now a member of or a party to any pool, trust, agreement, combination, confederation or understanding with any other corporation, partnership, individual, or any other person or association of persons, to regulate or fix the price of any article of manufacture, mechanism, merchandise, commodity, convenience, repair, any product of mining, or any article or thing whatsoever, or the price or premium to be paid for insuring property against loss or damage by fire, lightning or storm; and that it has not entered into or become a member of or a party to any pool, trust, agreement, contract, combination or confederation to fix or limit the amount or quantity of any article of manufacture, mechanism, merchandise, commodity, convenience, repair, any product of mining, or any article or thing whatsoever, or the price or premium to be paid for insuring property against loss or damage 1 Section 7 is given as amended by Laws of 1895, page 237, and Laws of 1897, page 208. |