Northern Securities Co. v. United State

193 U.S. 197 (1904)

Facts

The Great Northern Railway Company and the Northern Pacific Railway Company were competitors in the markets they served. The two conceived a plan of organizing a corporation, D, which would hold the shares of the stock of the constituent companies to become one powerful consolidated corporation. D was organized as the holding corporation through which that scheme should be executed; and under that scheme, such holding corporation became the holder -- more properly speaking, the custodian -- of more than nine-tenths of the stock of the Northern Pacific, and more than three-fourths of the stock of the Great Northern. P sued alleging that the combination of the two railroads who were active competitors in their regions of operation was a violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act. The trial court held for P and D appealed.