Bessinger v. Food Lion, LLC , 115 F. App'x 636 ( 2004 )

UNPUBLISHED
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT
No. 04-1067
MAURICE BESSINGER; PIGGIE PARK ENTERPRISES,
INCORPORATED,
Plaintiffs - Appellants,
versus
FOOD LION, LLC; BOBBY DALTON,
Defendants - Appellees.
No. 04-1068
MAURICE BESSINGER; PIGGIE PARK ENTERPRISES,
INCORPORATED,
Plaintiffs - Appellants,
versus
MIKE GRAYBEAL; WINN DIXIE CHARLOTTE,
INCORPORATED,
Defendants - Appellees.
No. 04-1069
MAURICE BESSINGER; PIGGIE PARK ENTERPRISES,
INCORPORATED,
Plaintiffs - Appellants,
versus
SAM'S CLUB, INCORPORATED,
Defendant - Appellee,
and
CHARLIE GURISCO,
Defendant.
No. 04-1070
MAURICE BESSINGER; PIGGIE PARK ENTERPRISES,
INCORPORATED,
Plaintiffs - Appellants,
versus
WAL-MART STORES, INCORPORATED,
Defendant - Appellee,
and
LARRY LOLLIS,
Defendant.
No. 04-1071
MAURICE BESSINGER; PIGGIE PARK ENTERPRISES,
INCORPORATED,
Plaintiffs - Appellants,
versus
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HARRIS TEETER, INCORPORATED; RANDY RASMUSSEN,
Defendants - Appellees.
Appeals from the United States District Court for the District of
South Carolina, at Columbia. Joseph F. Anderson, Jr., Chief
District Judge. (CA-03-2828-3-17; CA-03-2874-17-8; CA-03-2807-4-
17; CA-03-2810-8-17; CA-03-3153-2-17)
Argued: September 30, 2004 Decided: November 19, 2004
Before WIDENER, NIEMEYER, and LUTTIG, Circuit Judges.
Affirmed by unpublished opinion. Judge Niemeyer wrote the opinion,
in which Judge Widener and Judge Luttig joined.
ARGUED: Glen Winston La Force, Sr., Hilton Head Island, South
Carolina, for Appellants. E. Raymond Moore, III, MURPHY &
GRANTLAND, P.A., Columbia, South Carolina; Cheryl Anne Falvey,
AKINS, GUMP, STRAUSS, HAUER & FELD, L.L.P., Washington, D.C., for
Appellees. ON BRIEF: George H. McMaster, TOMPKINS & MCMASTER,
Columbia, South Carolina, for Appellants. Paul D. Harrill,
Jonathan M. Milling, MCNAIR LAW FIRM, P.A., Columbia, South
Carolina, for Appellees Del Haiz, America, Inc., and Bobby Dalton;
Donald A. Cockrill, OGLETREE, DEAKINS, NASH, SMOAK & STEWART, P.C.,
Greenville, South Carolina, for Appellees Winn-Dixie Stores, Inc.,
and Mike Graybeal; Jeffrey Parker Dunlaevy, OGLETREE, DEAKINS,
NASH, SMOAK & STEWART, P.C., Greenville, South Carolina, Jacob John
Modla, OGLETREE, DEAKINS, NASH, SMOAK & STEWART, P.C., Charlotte,
North Carolina, for Appellees Harris Teeter, Inc., and Randy
Rasmussen.
Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.
See Local Rule 36(c).
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NIEMEYER, Circuit Judge:
Maurice Bessinger and his business, Piggie Park
Enterprises, Incorporated, which operates barbecue restaurants in
South Carolina and manufactures barbecue sauce and related
products, commenced nine separate actions in South Carolina state
court against food chain retailers that had ceased purchasing and
offering for sale plaintiffs' barbecue products. In several of the
actions, plaintiffs also sued individual store managers who carried
out their stores' orders and removed plaintiffs' barbecue products
from store shelves. Each of the complaints purported to allege a
violation of the South Carolina Unfair Trade Practices Act
("SCUTPA"), S.C. Code Ann. § 39-5-10 et seq., based on the
contention that the defendants' discontinuation of carrying
plaintiffs' products was an unfair trade practice.
The plaintiffs' complaints alleged that in July 2000,
when the Confederate battle flag was lowered from the top of the
South Carolina capitol building, Bessinger began flying the
Confederate battle flag at his restaurants. Within a month, an
article appeared in The State newspaper that was extremely critical
of Bessinger for flying the flag and for distributing religious
literature at Bessinger's restaurants that the newspaper alleged to
be controversial in nature. Following The State newspaper article,
a series of news media stories appeared both in print and on radio
and television "concerning [the media's] perception of Plaintiff
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Bessinger's political and religious views with special emphasis on
the Confederate Battle Flag controversy." Following this
publicity, defendants removed plaintiffs' products from store
shelves and discontinued selling their products. As the complaints
alleged, "[t]he sole reason that Plaintiffs' products were removed
by the Defendants in this case was because of Plaintiff's
individual political and religious views as expressed by him and
publicized in the media." The plaintiffs claim that the
defendants' retaliation against plaintiffs for their exercise of
free speech was an unfair trade practice that violated SCUTPA. The
plaintiffs demanded in the aggregate $45 million in compensatory
damages, as well as treble damages, punitive damages, and attorneys
fees.
In the five actions against Food Lion, Inc., Winn-Dixie,
Inc., Sam's Club, Inc., Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., and Harris Teeter,
Inc., respectively, the defendants removed the cases to federal
court based on diversity jurisdiction conferred by 28 U.S.C. § 1332and filed motions to dismiss the complaints under Federal Rule of
Civil Procedure 12(b)(6). In the Food Lion, Winn-Dixie, and Harris
Teeter cases, the plaintiffs in turn moved to remand the cases to
state court because the store managers, who were also named
defendants, were South Carolina citizens, thus destroying diversity
of citizenship, the essential condition for diversity jurisdiction.
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The district court denied the motions to remand and granted the
defendants' motions to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(6).
Applying the "fraudulent joinder doctrine," see Mayes v.
Rapoport, 198 F.3d 457, 461 (4th Cir. 1999); Marshall v. Manville
Sales Corp., 6 F.3d 229, 232-33 (4th Cir. 1993), the district court
disregarded the citizenship of the store managers because there was
no possibility that the plaintiffs would be able to establish that
the managers were liable under SCUTPA. The court observed that the
managers "did not commit, participate in, direct or authorize the
corporate decision to discontinue the plaintiffs' products." With
the managers' citizenship disregarded, the court concluded that it
had jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1332 and accordingly denied the
plaintiffs' motion to remand.
On the question of whether the plaintiffs' complaints
stated a claim under SCUTPA upon which relief could be granted, the
district court concluded (1) that the plaintiffs' allegations that
the defendants discontinued selling plaintiffs' products in
retaliation against plaintiffs' speech did not allege an "unfair
act," as required by SCUTPA, and (2) that the defendants' alleged
retaliation did not adversely affect members of the public, also as
required by SCUTPA. The district court reasoned that while the
plaintiffs retained the right to speak out as they had done, the
defendants retained the right to exercise their freedom not to sell
plaintiffs' products. In addition, the court concluded that the
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exercise of these rights by the respective parties did not
adversely affect the public but rather benefited it. As the court
explained,
the vendor is free to express his views; the store is
free not to do business with the vendor based on those
views; and the customer is free not to patronize the
store because it no longer sells the vendor's product.
Such free market interaction benefits rather than harms
the public interest.
Accordingly, the district court entered judgment in favor of the
defendants in each of the five actions on November 24, 2003. From
these judgments, the plaintiffs appealed.
We have carefully reviewed the record and considered the
arguments of the parties' counsel in their briefs and oral
arguments, and at bottom, we agree with the district court.
Accordingly, for the reasons given by the district court in its
opinion filed in each of the five actions, see Bessinger et al. v.
Food Lion, LLC et al., No. 03-CV-2828 (D.S.C. Nov. 20, 2003);
Bessinger et al. v. Winn Dixie, Inc. et al., No. 03-CV-2874 (D.S.C.
Nov. 20, 2003); Bessinger et al. v. Sam's Club, Inc. et al., No.
03-CV-2807 (D.S.C. Nov. 20, 2003); Bessinger et al. v. Wal-Mart
Stores, Inc. et al., No. 03-CV-2810 (D.S.C. Nov. 20, 2003); and
Bessinger et al. v. Harris Teeter, Inc. et al., No. 03-CV-3153
(D.S.C. Nov. 20, 2003), we affirm.
AFFIRMED
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