Opinion of the Court. independent firms, corporations, limited partnerships and individuals engaged in purchasing, transporting, refining, shipping and selling oil and the products thereof among the various States turned over the management of their said business, corporations and limited partnerships to nine trustees, composed chiefly of certain individuals defendant herein, which said trust agreement was in restraint of trade and commerce and in violation of law, as hereinafter more particularly alleged." The trust agreement thus referred to was set out in the bill. It was made in January, 1882. By its terms the stock of forty corporations, including the Standard Oil Company of Ohio, and a large quantity of various properties which had been previously acquired by the alleged combination and which was held in diverse forms, as we have previously indicated, for the benefit of the members of the combination, was vested in the trustees and their successors, “ to be held for all parties in interest jointly.” In the body of the trust agreement was contained a list of the various individuals and corporations and limited partnerships whose stockholders and members, or a portion thereof, became parties to the agreement. This list is in the margin.. a 1st. All the stockholders and members of the following corporations and limited partnerships, to wit: Acme Oil Company, New York. Also all the stockholders and members of such other corporations and limited partnerships as may hereafter join in this agreement at the request of the trustees herein provided for. 2d. The following individuals, to wit: W. C. Andrews, John D. Archbold, Lide K. Arter, J. A. Bostwick, Benjamin Brewster, D. Bushnell, Thomas C. Bushnell, J. N. Camden, Opinion of the Court. [35] The agreement made provision for the method of controlling and managing the property by the trustees, for Henry L. Davis, H. M. Flagler, Mrs. H. M. Flagler, John Huntington, H. A. Hutchins, Charles F. G. Heye, A. B. Jennings, Charles Lockhart, A. M. McGregor, William H. Macy, William H. Macy, jr., estate of Josiah Macy, William H. Macy, jr., executor; 0. H. Payne, A. J. Pouch, John D. Rockefeller, William Rockefeller, Henry H. Rogers, W. P. Thompson, J. J. Vandergrift, William T. Wardwell, W. G. Warden, Joseph L. Warden, Warden, Frew & Co., Louise C. Wheaton, H. M. Hanna, and George W. Chapin, D. M. Harkness, D. M. Hark: ness, trustee, V. Harkness, O. H. Payne, trustee; Charles Pratt, Horace A. Pratt, C. M. Pratt, Julia H. York, George H. Vilas, M. R. Keith, trustees, George F. Chester. Also all such individuals as may hereafter join in the agreement at the request of the trustees herein provided for. 3d. A portion of the stockholders and members of the following corporations and limited partnerships, to wit: American Lubricating Oil Company. Also .stockholders and members (not being all thereof) of other corporations and limited partnerships who may hereafter join in this agreement at the request of the trustees herein provided for." Opinion of the Court. the formation of additional manufacturing, etc., corpora[36]tions in various States, and the trust, unless terminated by a mode specified, was to continue “during the lives of the survivors and survivor of the trustees named in the agreement and for twenty-one years thereafter.” The agreement provided for the issue of Standard Oil Trust certificates to represent the interest arising under the trust in the properties affected by the trust, which of course in view of the provisions of the agreement and the subject to which it related caused the interest in the certificates to be coincident with and the exact representative of the interest in the combination, that is, in the Standard Oil Company of Ohio. Soon afterwards it was alleged the trustees organized the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey and the Standard Oil Company of New York, the former having a capital stock of $3,000,000 and the latter a capital stock of $5,000,000, subsequently increased to $10,000,000 and $15,000,000 respectively. The bill alleged "that pursuant to said trust agreement the said trustees caused to be transferred to themselves the stocks of all corporations and limited partnerships named in said trust agreement, and caused various of the individuals and copartnerships, who owned apparently independent refineries and other properties employed in the business of refining and transporting and selling oil in and among said various States and Terri[37]tories of the United States as aforesaid, to transfer their property situated in said several States to the respective Standard Oil Companies of said States of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ohio, and other corporations organized or acquired by said trustees from time to time. *." For the stocks and property so acquired the trustees issued trust certificates. It was alleged that in 1888 the trustees“ unlawfully controlled the stock and ownership of various corporations and limited partnerships engaged in such purchase and transportation, refining, selling, * Opinion of the Court. and shipping of oil," as per a list which is excerpted in the margin. [38] The bill charged that during the second period quo *Warranto proceedings were commenced against the Standard Oil Company of Ohio, which resulted in the entry by the Supreme Court of Ohio, on March 2, 1892, of a decree [39] adjudging the trust agreement to be void, not only because the Standard Oil Company of Ohio was a party to the same, but also because the agreement in and of itself [40] was in 1 List of corporations the stocks of which were wholly or partially held by the trustees of Standard Oil Trust: New York State: Acme Oil Company, manufacturers of petroleum products. products.. of lamp wicks.. Bush & Denslow Manufacturing Company, manufactur ers of petroleum products. Chesebrough Manufacturing Company, manufacturers of petroleum... Central Refining Company (Limited), manufacturers of petroleum products. Devoe Manufacturing Company, packers, manufacturers of petroleum.. petroleum products. cases leum products. Standard Oil Company of New York, manufacturers of petroleum products.. Sone & Fleming Manufacturing Company (Limited), manufacturers of petroleum products... ers of petroleum products.. products.... New Jersey: Eagle Oil Company, manufacturers of petroleum products. petroleum products..... Pennsylvania: Acme Oil Company, manufacturers of petroleum products. products. products.... Imperial Refining Company (Limited), manufacturers of petroleum products.. Producers' Consolidated Land and Petroleum Company, producers of crude oil.. National Transit Company, transporters of crude oil. Standard Oil Company, manufacturers of petroleum products.... Signal Oil Works (Limited), manufacturers of petroleum products... 150,000 86% per cent. 300,000 Entire. 1,000,000 per cent. 25, 455, 200 94 per cent. 400,000 Entire. 100,000 387 per cent. Opinion of the Court. restraint of trade and amounted to the creation of an unlawful monopoly. It was alleged that shortly after this decision, seemingly for the purpose of complying therewith, voluntary proceedings were had apparently to dissolve the trust, but that these proceedings were a subterfuge and a sham because they simply amounted to a transfer of the stock held by the trust in 64 of the companies which it controlled to some of the remaining 20 companies, it having controlled before the decree 84 in all, thereby, while seemingly in part giving up its dominion, yet in reality preserving the same by means of the control of the companies as to which it had retained complete authority. It was charged that especially was this the case, as the stock in the companies selected for transfer was virtually owned by the nine trustees or the members of their immediate families or associates. The bill further alleged that in 1897 the attorney general of Ohio instituted contempt proceedings in the quo warranto case based upon the claim that the trust had Footnote continued. Capital Standard Oil Trust ownership. Ohio: products. products. Solar Refining Company, manufacturers of petroleum products.. Kentucky: Standard Oil Company, jobbers of petroleum products... troleum products.... petroleum products... Minnesota: Standard Oil Company, jobbers of petroleum products.... ucts... Massachusetts: Beacon Oil Company, jobbers of petroleum products.. Maverick Oil Company, jobbers of petroleum products... Maine: Portland Kerosene Oil Company, jobbers of petroleum products.. Iowa: Standard Oil Company, jobbers of petroleum products... 600.000 60 per cent. |