City of Anaheim v. Southern California Edison Co.
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
955 F.2d 1373 (1992)
- Written by John Reeves, JD
Facts
The cities of Anaheim, Riverside, Banning, Colton, and Azusa (the cities) (plaintiffs) were the sole providers of electricity to their respective residents. But none of the cities actually produced the electricity—they all needed to use the electrical transmission system of Southern Edison Company (Edison) (defendant) to obtain the electricity and send it to their residents. Edison—which also provided electricity to its own customers who were not residents of any of the cities—obtained the electricity from a variety of sources. One of the most inexpensive sources from which Edison could obtain electricity was the Pacific Intertie facility. But Edison’s access to electricity from Pacific Intertie was not unlimited. The cities demanded that Edison supply them with inexpensive electricity from Pacific Intertie, but Edison refused, pointing out that it was already providing all Pacific Intertie electricity to its own customers, and that it could not provide electricity from Pacific Intertie to the cities without cutting Pacific Intertie electricity off from its own customer base. The cities sued Edison for violation of the Sherman Act. They argued that Pacific Intertie was an essential facility, and that under the essential-facilities doctrine Edison was required to supply them electricity from Pacific Intertie. Edison disagreed, pointing out that the cities admitted that they could obtain electricity from other facilities at rates that, although higher, were still reasonable. Consequently, Edison continued, Pacific Intertie could not be an essential facility. The district court agreed with Edison and granted it summary judgment. The cities appealed.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Fernandez, J.)
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