State v. Harper & Row Publishers, Inc.

*39MEMORANDUM OPINION

DECKER, District Judge.

Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1407, more than forty separate antitrust actions have been transferred to this court for consolidated discovery and pretrial proceedings. Originally instituted in eight judicial districts, the private treble damage suits seek compensation from publishers and wholesalers for alleged conspiracies which inflated the prices for children’s editions of library books. The plaintiffs are state and local governments, public schools, and public libraries.

In an ambitious discovery program, the parties have deposed approximately one hundred…