Lawrence Nickerson v. Matco Tools Corporation, a Division of the Jacobs Manufacturing Company

BAILEY ALDRICH, Senior Circuit Judge.

Plaintiffs Nickerson, Miller, Cilley, and Worrall were self-employed truck-traveling sellers of mechanics’ tools, broadly classified as hard line and soft line. Three plaintiffs previously had distributorship contracts with a supplier, Mae Tool Company, which furnished the hard line. An associated company, defendant Mac Allied, supplied the soft line. Both companies were slow, causing plaintiffs serious back-order problems. The companies decided to break up, and defendant Mac Allied, now to be known as Mateo Tools, planned to carry both lines. One Lavoie…