United States v. Beachner Construction Co.

Beachner Construction Co. (the company) (defendant) was a construction company in Kansas. The Kansas Department of Transportation chose companies to complete state highway products through a bidding system. Until 1972 Kansas construction companies participated in a yearly bid-rigging system under which the construction companies allocated jobs among themselves and submitted bids accordingly. In 1972 the annual bid-rigging system was replaced with a less organized system, though the construction companies continued to allocate jobs among themselves. The United States government (plaintiff) accused Beachner Construction Co. of bid-rigging in violation of § 1 of the Sherman Act. In its initial case, the government charged the company and its secretary-treasurer, Robert Beachner, of conspiring to eliminate competition through the bid-rigging scheme. Robert and the company were acquitted after a trial. In its second case, the government charged the company and its vice president, Jerry Beachner, of conspiring to eliminate competition through the bid-rigging scheme. The company filed a motion to dismiss the indictment, arguing that the government’s second indictment violated the Double Jeopardy Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The district court granted the company’s motion, holding that the bid-rigging scheme at the center of the government’s indictments constituted a single conspiracy and that, under the Double Jeopardy Clause, the company could not be indicted for the same conspiracy twice. The government appealed, arguing that the indictments were based on different conspiracies because they involved bid-rigging for different jobs.