Oil price suit fails
NZPA-Reuter Los Angeles ■ The world’s oil-producing nations scored two big vic- . tones yesterday in an unprecedented court attempt to prevent them from raising petroleum prices. 4 But the case in a U.S, District Court was still unfinished after Monday's ruling by Judge Andrew Hauk that the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries could not be sued and that the Arneri- i can trade union bringing | the action could not claim damages for previous price rises.
The Judge still must de-; cide whether he has jurisdiction in the action by the International Association of Machinists. He promised to do this bv the week-end at Monday’s opening hearing. Judge Hauk on Monday also left open the question of whether I.A.M could sue the 13 member States of O.P.E.C. in its antitrust (cartel) action. But while the Judge said the O.P.E.C. member States remained as defendants, he added he was strongly bothered because previous cases had established that the United States Sherman anti-trust law applied only to people and corporations, not States.
In his first blow against the I.A.M. case, Judge Hauk dismissed O.P.E.C. from the action on the ground that it was neither | the instrument of a State . nor an international organisation under the legal definition of the term. f The Judge also said that > Since lA.M. was an in- i direct buyer of O.P.E.C. oil it had no right to collect damages.
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Press, 22 August 1979, Page 1
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234Oil price suit fails Press, 22 August 1979, Page 1
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