Board of Education Township v. Climatemp

The attorney general for the state of Illinois and state’s attorney for Cook County, on behalf of the state of Illinois, the Chicago Board of Education, and Cook County (collectively, the state) (plaintiffs), filed an antitrust suit in state court against numerous sheet-metal construction companies (the construction companies) (defendants), alleging acts of bid-rigging and job allocation. The state alleged the construction companies to have conspired to restrain trade by sharing information about projects, allocating the projects among themselves, agreeing to submit low bid amounts, submitting insincere bids, and even refraining from bidding. Although the state did assert that their suit could be maintained as a class action on behalf of public entities within the state, the state did not move for certification as a class. The construction companies, however, filed a motion to strike the class-action assertions made by the state, arguing that the number of public entities that might have claims against the companies was not so numerous as to make other available methods of adjudication impracticable. The state objected, arguing that the class-action procedure was the only available method, and requested further discovery in order to ascertain the total number of entities with potential claims. Additional discovery was permitted and revealed the total number of public entities that might have claims to be 135.