In re Processed Egg Prods. Antitrust Litig.

Pratter, United States District Judge

INTRODUCTION 1

This is a straightforward case of statutory interpretation where the plain language dictates the result. After ten years of incubating, and on the eve of closing arguments of a month-long trial, the parties suggest that the outcome of the case hinges on the meaning of one word in a little-used 1922 statute partially protecting farmers from antitrust laws. The Court is called upon to answer the deceptively simple question: how should one calculate the "value" of something?

In a certain sense, value is ephemeral. There are many types of value.…