Counsel for the defendants retained Dr. Michael Keeley, a senior vice president of Cornerstone Research, to evaluate the plaintiff’s antitrust claims from an economic perspective and to assess the validity of the analysis of the plaintiff’s economist.
Retained by Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton
Counsel for the defendants retained Dr. Michael Keeley, a senior vice president of Cornerstone Research, to evaluate the plaintiff’s antitrust claims from an economic perspective and to assess the validity of the analysis of the plaintiff’s economist. The plaintiff, a pediatric radiologist, alleged violations of both Sections I and II of the Sherman Act, claiming that the defendants had engaged in a horizontal market division agreement and that one of the defendants had also unilaterally refused to deal with her.
The United States District Court for the Southern District of California granted summary judgment to the defendants in this matter.
Dr. Keeley demonstrated that the defendants did not have any incentive to engage in collusive behavior and had no ability to engage in anticompetitive conduct because they faced competition from many other healthcare providers. Dr. Keeley also showed that the alleged conduct could not have led to an antitrust impact because the hypothetical exclusion of the plaintiff from practicing at one hospital could not have harmed competition or adversely affected the prices paid or the quality of care received by the ultimate consumers—the patients.
The United States District Court for the Southern District of California granted summary judgment to the defendants in this matter, a decision that was affirmed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.