24 F.

3d 508
1994-1 Trade Cases P 70,588

Gary L. PASTORE, an individual; National Security Systems

Corporation, a Pennsylvania corporation, Appellants
v.
The BELL TELEPHONE COMPANY OF PENNSYLVANIA,
a Pennsylvania
corporation; Bell Atlantic Corporation, a Delaware
corporation; Ronald Donaldson, Robert S. Fadzen, Jr.;
Raymond J. Wickline; George Caldwell.
No. 93-3556.

United States Court of Appeals,

Third Circuit.
Submitted Under Third Circuit LAR 34.1(a)
May 2, 1994.
Decided May 16, 1994.

John R. Orie, Jr., Orie & Zivic, Pittsburgh, PA, for appellants.
Richard B. Tucker, III, Jeffrey J. Leech, Diane Hernon Chavis, Pittsburgh,
PA, for appellees Bell Telephone Co. of Pennsylvania, Bell Atlantic
Corp., Ronald Donaldson, Raymond J. Wickline, George Caldwell.
Ralston S. Jackson, Odermatt & Jackson, Pittsburgh, PA, for appellee
Robert S. Fadzen, Jr.
Before: SLOVITER, Chief Judge, HUTCHINSON, and SEITZ, Circuit
Judges.
OPINION OF THE COURT
SLOVITER, Chief Judge.

Gary Pastore and National Security Systems Corporation (NASSCO),

plaintiffs-appellants, appeal from the entry of summary judgment in favor of

defendants-appellees Bell Atlantic Corporation, its subsidiary, Bell Telephone

Company of Pennsylvania, and four individual employees on plaintiffs'
attempted monopolization claim under section 2 of the Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C.
Sec. 2 (Supp. IV 1992).
I.
FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY
2

The facts in this case are, for the most part, not in dispute. Pastore established
NASSCO in early 1986 to install a sophisticated custom-designed access
control communications security network (CDACCSN) for Bell of
Pennsylvania, which awarded it a contract for thirty of its facilities. Bell of
Pennsylvania told Pastore that it planned to order the same system for all of its
800 facilities if this pilot project was successful and that it might extend to as
many as 4,000 facilities in other subsidiaries of Bell Atlantic.

The pilot project was timely completed and Bell of Pennsylvania officials
expressed satisfaction with NASSCO's performance. Thereafter, they
repeatedly asked NASSCO to surrender the computer source codes and specific
proprietary information and technical designs relating to the CDACCSN which
NASSCO declined to do, but because Bell of Pennsylvania insisted on some
guarantees in the event of NASSCO's bankruptcy, NASSCO agreed to deposit
in escrow the requested proprietary information.

Nonetheless, Bell of Pennsylvania ceased doing business with NASSCO and

told NASSCO in March 1990 that a project for a Pittsburgh facility had been
placed "on hold." In December 1990, Pastore was informed that a security
system had been installed by an entity entitled Integrated Access Systems in the
Monroeville Revenue Accounting Center, although the site was within the
network of facilities to be installed and serviced exclusively by NASSCO.
Other already-approved projects which were part of the first planned phase
involving installation of the CDACCSN statewide were not carried forward,
while none of the work planned for the second or third phase was initiated.

Plaintiffs filed this action in the District Court for the Western District of
Pennsylvania alleging that defendants attempted to monopolize the relevant
market in violation of section 2 of the Sherman Act1 , as well as under a variety
of pendent state law tort and contract theories.2 Defendants moved to dismiss
for failure to state a claim under the Sherman Act. The district court issued an
order converting the motion to dismiss into a motion for summary judgment as
to the Sherman Act claim only. After granting plaintiffs two extensions for

further discovery, the court granted the summary judgment motion, holding
that the plaintiffs had produced no evidence of a dangerous probability of the
defendants monopolizing the relevant market, and dismissed the pendent state
law claims without prejudice. Plaintiffs filed this timely appeal.
II.
DISCUSSION
A.
Additional Discovery
6

Throughout their brief, plaintiffs argue that summary judgment was

inappropriate because they did not have adequate time for discovery. As this
court has previously noted, we review a claim that the district court has
prematurely granted summary judgment for abuse of discretion. See Radich v.
Goode, 886 F.2d 1391, 1393 (3d Cir.1989). If a party believes that s/he needs
additional time for discovery, Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(f) specifies the procedure to be
followed,3 and explicitly provides that the party must file an affidavit setting
forth why the time is needed. Plaintiffs concede, however, that they did not
submit an affidavit. This concession is usually fatal, because by not filing "a
Rule 56(f) affidavit, [they have] not preserved [their] objection to [their]
alleged inability to obtain necessary discovery." Falcone v. Columbia Pictures
Indus., Inc., 805 F.2d 115, 117 n. 2 (3d Cir.1986).

Plaintiffs contend that their brief opposing the defendants' motion for summary
judgment constructively meets Rule 56(f)'s affidavit requirement. In the past we
have rejected such arguments because "Rule 56(f) clearly requires that an
affidavit be filed. 'The purpose of the affidavit is to ensure that the nonmoving
party is invoking the protection of Rule 56(f) in good faith and to afford the
trial court the showing necessary to assess the merit of a party's opposition.' An
unsworn memorandum opposing a party's motion for summary judgment is not
an affidavit." Radich, 886 F.2d at 1394 (citations omitted).4

Even if we were to regard the request in plaintiffs' brief opposing the

defendants' motion for summary judgment that the court "delay [summary
judgment] until a more complete factual record is developed," Plaintiff's
Supplemental Memorandum of Law in Opposition to Motion for Summary
Judgment, Docket No. 33 at 13, as the functional equivalent of a Rule 56(f)
affidavit, see St. Surin v. Virgin Island Daily News, Inc., 21 F.3d 1309 (3d
Cir.1994), the district court did not err in considering defendants' motion for

summary judgment because plaintiffs did not specify "what particular

information is sought; how, if uncovered, it would preclude summary
judgment; and why it has not previously been obtained." Dowling v. City of
Philadelphia, 855 F.2d 136, 140 (3d Cir.1988).
9

Plaintiffs stated in their brief in the district court that a deposition of defendant
Fadzen would demonstrate specific intent to monopolize. They claimed that
Fadzen "may be a source of information not only as to specific intent but as to
the product and the market as well, given his involvement with vendors and
knowledge of software." Docket No. 33 at 12 n. 11. Even assuming that
plaintiffs were referring to the defendants' market power, the issue relevant
here, it would be insufficient under Rule 56(f). Such an amorphous allegation
fails to explain what plaintiffs expected to discover, how it applied to their case
and why they could not obtain that information elsewhere.

10

The district court granted summary judgment in this case because the
defendants had not entered the relevant market and thus had no market power.
Plaintiffs have not explained on appeal why information as to any entry by Bell
of Pennsylvania was available only through Fadzen nor what other attempts
plaintiffs made to discover this information. It is not readily apparent, for
example, why Pastore himself was unable to submit an affidavit with such
information. We therefore decline to reverse the district court's decision to
consider the summary judgment motion, when plaintiffs failed to move beyond
mere generalities in their attempt to delay that consideration.

B.
Standards for Summary Judgment
11

We review the district court's decision to enter summary judgment de novo,

applying the same standard as the district court. Once the moving party has
carried the initial burden of showing that no genuine issue of material fact
exists, see Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 323, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 255253, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986), the nonmoving party cannot rely upon conclusory
allegations in its pleadings or in memoranda and briefs to establish a genuine
issue of material fact. Instead, it "must make a showing sufficient to establish
the existence of every element essential to his case, based on the affidavits or
by the depositions and admissions on file." Harter v. GAF Corp., 967 F.2d 846,
852 (3d Cir.1992). It is true, however, that "[i]nferences should be drawn in the
light most favorable to the non-moving party, and where the non-moving
party's evidence contradicts the movant's, then the non-movant's must be taken
as true." Big Apple BMW, Inc. v. BMW of North America, Inc., 974 F.2d 1358,

1363 (3d Cir.1992), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 113 S.Ct. 1262, 122 L.Ed.2d 659
(1993).
12

Although we have stated in the past that summary judgment should be used
sparingly in antitrust litigation because of the fact-intensive nature of such
claims, see Harold Friedman, Inc. v. Kroger Co., 581 F.2d 1068, 1080 (3d
Cir.1978), more recently we have taken note that "many courts, including the
Supreme Court, have ... held defendants entitled to summary judgment in
antitrust cases," and that despite the "factually intensive" nature of antitrust
cases "the standard of Fed.R.Civ.P. 56 remains the same." Town Sound &
Custom Tops, Inc. v. Chrysler Motors Corp., 959 F.2d 468, 481 (3d Cir.) (in
banc) (citations omitted), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 113 S.Ct. 196, 121 L.Ed.2d
139 (1992). In fact, the Supreme Court has recently affirmed that there is no
"special burden ... [for] summary judgment in antitrust cases." Eastman Kodak
Co. v. Image Technical Servs., Inc., --- U.S. ----, ----, 112 S.Ct. 2072, 2083, 119
L.Ed.2d 265 (1992).

C.
Dangerous Probability of Achieving Monopoly Power
13
14

The Supreme Court has recently restated the necessary elements to state a claim
under section 2 of the Sherman Act. "[T]o demonstrate attempted
monopolization a plaintiff must prove (1) that the defendant has engaged in
predatory or anticompetitive conduct with (2) a specific intent to monopolize
and (3) a dangerous probability of achieving monopoly power." Spectrum
Sports, Inc. v. McQuillan, --- U.S. ----, ----, 113 S.Ct. 884, 890-91, 122 L.Ed.2d
247 (1993) (citing 3 Phillip Areeda & Donald F. Turner, Antitrust Law p 820 at
312 (1978)).

15

The district court granted summary judgment based on the failure of the
plaintiffs to meet the "dangerous probability" requirement, and this is the only
issue before us on appeal. Determining whether a "dangerous probability"
exists requires "inquiry into the relevant product and geographic market and the
defendant's economic power in that market." Spectrum Sports, --- U.S. at ----,
113 S.Ct. at 892.

16

The plaintiffs have the burden of defining the market. See Tunis Bros. Co., Inc.
v. Ford Motor Co., 952 F.2d 715, 726 (3d Cir.1991), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----,
112 S.Ct. 3034, 120 L.Ed.2d 903 (1992). Plaintiffs claim that the relevant
market is the very narrow one of the CDACCSN itself, see Appellants' Brief at
15 ("the NASSCO product ... constitute[s] the relevant market"),5 and that they

themselves hold a monopoly over the CDACCSN. Id. at 14-15 ("NASSCO

possessed monopoly power as to this product market"). Indeed, plaintiffs
vigorously assert that the CDACCSN was a unique system that was
incomparable to all others then or since on the market. App. at 110 (Pastore
Affidavit) ("As late as 1990, it was believed that the system was unprecedented
and unique.... Since 1990 other suppliers have advertised similar features....
However, NASSCO is not aware of any installation which duplicates all of the
unique features of the NASSCO system installed at Bell of PA.").6
17

For purposes of the matter before us, we hold plaintiffs to their own contention,
see Edward J. Sweeney & Sons, Inc. v. Texaco, Inc., 637 F.2d 105, 117 (3d
Cir.1980) (plaintiff bound by relevant market analysis proposed to district
court), cert. denied, 451 U.S. 911, 101 S.Ct. 1981, 68 L.Ed.2d 300 (1981), and
we assume arguendo that the plaintiffs have demonstrated this to be the
appropriate market definition.

18

Plaintiffs must thus show that the defendants possessed "sufficient market
power" to come dangerously close to success within that market. Fineman v.
Armstrong World Indus., Inc., 980 F.2d 171, 197 (3d Cir.1992), cert. denied, --U.S. ----, 113 S.Ct. 1285, 122 L.Ed.2d 677 (1993); Barr Labs., Inc. v. Abbot
Labs., 978 F.2d 98, 112 (3d Cir.1992). There is no simple formula: factors to be
reviewed "include the strength of the competition, probable development of the
industry, the barriers to entry, the nature of the anti-competitive conduct, and
the elasticity of consumer demand." Id. at 112. Most significant, however, is
the defendants' share of the relevant market. See id. (collecting cases). Indeed, a
pair of the leading antitrust commentators state that "it is clear that the basic
thrust of the classic rule is the presumption that attempt does not occur in the
absence of a rather significant market share." Areeda & Turner, supra, p 831 at
336.

19

The defendants have submitted an affidavit which states they are not "engaged
in the businesses of (i) remotely monitoring security alarms or (ii) the
manufacture, sale or provision of equipment used to remotely monitor alarms or
card access security systems." App. at 70. The plaintiffs offer no evidence that
the defendants have entered the CDACCSN market. Indeed, they have confined
their discussion to defendants' future entry into the market. See, e.g., App. at 24
(Complaint) (defendants are "intent upon entering"); App. at 119 (Pastore
Affidavit) ("in the event that Bell Atlantic is determined to enter into the alarm
monitoring market"); Memorandum of Law in Response to Defendants' Motion
to Dismiss, Docket No. 11 at 2 (defendants are "poised to enter"). Thus, it is
clear that the defendants presently have no share of the CDACCSN market.7
Without any share in the relevant market as described by plaintiffs, there can be

no inference that defendants hold sufficient economic power in that market to

create a dangerous probability of monopoly. See Neumann v. Reinforced Earth
Co., 786 F.2d 424, 428 (D.C.Cir.), cert. denied, 479 U.S. 851, 107 S.Ct. 181, 93
L.Ed.2d 116 (1986); see also Fineman, 980 F.2d at 201.
20

Plaintiffs argue that where there is high degree of predatory conduct coupled
with a transparent intent to monopolize, the courts have required a less rigorous
showing of market power. They cite Otto Milk Co. v. United Dairy Farmers
Coop. Ass'n, 388 F.2d 789 (3d Cir.1967), for this proposition, but nothing in
that case supports this view. In Otto Milk the defendants argued that they were
not liable because they did not in fact have a monopoly and we simply held that
an attempt claim under Section 2 "does not require an actual monopoly of the
territory sought." Id. at 798.

21

Three sources relied upon by the plaintiffs do support their position. A wellknown 1956 law review article by Professor Turner argued that if "defendants
are attempting to drive someone out of the market by foul means rather than
fair, there is ample warrant for not resorting to any refined analysis as to
whether ... having taken over all the production of a particular commodity, the
defendants would still face effective competition from substitutes." Donald F.
Turner, Antitrust Policy and the Cellophane Case, 70 Harv.L.Rev. 281, 305
(1956); see also Edwin S. Rockefeller, Antitrust Questions and Answers 27
(1974) ("If a sufficiently evil intent can be shown--to destroy or exclude a
competitor, control prices, or coerce customers or suppliers--the Court might
not look for any relevant market beyond the product immediately involved.").
And the district court in Rea v. Ford Motor Co., 355 F.Supp. 842, 876-77
(W.D.Pa.1973), rev'd, 497 F.2d 577 (3d Cir.), cert. denied, 419 U.S. 868, 95
S.Ct. 126, 42 L.Ed.2d 106 (1974), held that a finding of dangerous probability
of monopoly was unnecessary when overwhelming evidence of specific intent
to monopolize existed.

22

However, we reversed the district court in Rea and noted that a showing of "a
dangerous probability of achieving monopolization in a relevant market" was
necessary to prevail on a section 2 claim. 497 F.2d at 590 n. 28. More
generally, the principle proposed by the sources on which plaintiffs rely was
that adopted by the Ninth Circuit in Lessig v. Tidewater Oil Co., 327 F.2d 459,
474-75 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 377 U.S. 993, 84 S.Ct. 1920, 12 L.Ed.2d 1046
(1964), a decision this court rejected in Coleman Motor Co. v. Chrysler Corp.,
525 F.2d 1338, 1348 n. 17 (3d Cir.1975), and again in Edward J. Sweeney &
Sons, Inc. v. Texaco, Inc., 637 F.2d 105, 117 (3d Cir.1980), cert. denied, 451
U.S. 911, 101 S.Ct. 1981, 68 L.Ed.2d 300 (1981).

23

Further, the Supreme Court unanimously interred Lessig in Spectrum Sports. In

reversing a Ninth Circuit opinion which relied on Lessig, it held that intent to
monopolize alone "is not sufficient[ ] to establish the dangerous probability of
success that is the object of Sec. 2's prohibition of attempts." Id. --- U.S. at ----,
113 S.Ct. at 890. It explained that the "law directs itself not against conduct
which is competitive, even severely so, but against conduct which unfairly
tends to destroy competition itself.... Thus, this Court and other courts have
been careful to avoid constructions of Sec. 2 which might chill competition,
rather than foster it.... For these reasons, Sec. 2 makes the conduct of a single
firm unlawful only when it actually monopolizes or dangerously threatens to do
so. The concern that Sec. 2 might be applied so as to further anticompetitive
ends is plainly not met by inquiring only whether the defendant has engaged in
'unfair' or 'predatory' tactics." Id. at ---, 113 S.Ct. at 892 (citations omitted).

24

In any event, this is not the case in which we must consider whether predatory
actions by defendants may reduce the amount of market share that is needed to
show a dangerous probability of success. Having shown no market share by
defendants, plaintiffs have nothing to couple with their alleged predatory
behavior.

25

Accepting everything the plaintiffs say as true, it is ironic that they basically
seek to protect their own monopoly power in the field of dial-up, computerdriven remotely-monitored card-access security systems by use of an antitrust
suit. To the extent that plaintiffs may have rights to the product of their
creativity and initiative, there are other legal doctrines to protect them. On this
record, the district court did not err in holding that they have not shown enough
to proceed further under the Sherman Act.

III.
26

For the foregoing reasons we will affirm the judgment and order of the district
court.

Section 2 provides:
Every person who shall monopolize, or attempt to monopolize, or combine or
conspire with any other person or persons, to monopolize any part of the trade
or commerce among the several States, or with foreign nations, shall be deemed
guilty of a felony

....
15 U.S.C. Sec. 2.
2

The twelve count complaint included claims for defamation, promissory

estoppel, anticipatory breach of contract, breach of contract, breach of duty of
good faith, common law fraud and deceit, tortious interference with contractual
and business relations, tortious bad faith and unfair dealing, interference with
prospective economic advantage, and intentional infliction of emotional distress

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56(f) provides:

Should it appear from the affidavits of a party opposing the motion [for
summary judgment] that the party cannot for reasons stated present by affidavit
facts essential to justify the party's opposition, the court may refuse the
application for judgment or may order a continuance to permit affidavits to be
obtained or depositions to be taken or discovery to be had or may make such
other order as is just.
(emphasis added).

Plaintiffs claim that the circumstances in this case are "somewhat similar" to
Miller v. Beneficial Management Corp., 977 F.2d 834, 846 (3d Cir.1992),
where we held that the plaintiff's reliance on a Magistrate Judge's order
waiving the Rule 56(f) affidavit requirement permitted this court to review the
district court's termination of discovery, but we see no similarity (and plaintiffs
have not articulated any) other than the fact that in neither case was an affidavit
properly filed

At other times plaintiffs have argued the market should be "dial up, computer
driven remotely-monitored card-access security systems in the geographic
region served by Bell Atlantic." Memorandum of Law in Response to
Defendants' Motion to Dismiss, Docket No. 11 at 6-7 n. 2; see also App. at 24
(Complaint) ("remotely monitored security devices")

See also Pastore Affidavit, Docket No. 21 at 6 ("At the time of the misconduct
by Bell, to the best of my knowledge, NASSCO was the only supplier of such
an integrated access control product."); Plaintiffs' Br. in Opposition to Motion
for Summary Judgment, Docket No. 22 at 5 n. 3 ("This is not an instance of a
superior product among inferior competing products. It is an instance of a
product without competitors."); Plaintiffs' Supplemental Memorandum of Law
in Opposition to Motion for Summary Judgment, Docket No. 33 at 3 ("the
NASSCO product constituted a unique product without parallel or substitute")

Plaintiffs' position as to the only specific facility that they did not install, the
one at the Monroeville Revenue Accounting Center, is unclear. Even if this
system was "pirated" from NASSCO, see Pastore Affidavit, Docket No. 21 at
9-10 (defendants "were simultaneously meeting with another contractor, using
NASSCO's engineering design for the MRAC"); Plaintiffs' Br. in Opposition to
Motion for Summary Judgment, Docket No. 22 at 12 ("an unsuccessful effort
by defendants' to mimic the NASSCO product and install and implement that
pirated technology at [MRAC]"), there is no evidence that the defendants
attempted to market this system to others. The internal use at one site of the
NASSCO product is insufficient to indicate a dangerous probability of
achieving monopoly power