Automatic Retailers of America, Inc. v. Evans Cigarette Service Co.

We are here concerned with a contract which appears innocent on its face but its effect is made complicated by a series of corporate mergers and transactions. This apparently simple agreement is the basis of this equity action brought in the Circuit Court No. 2 of Baltimore City where Judge Meyer M. Cardin awarded the plaintiff damages for its breach. In order to understand the dispute, its rather complex fact pattern must be set forth in some detail.

Late in 1959, in an effort to supply some sustenance for the large number of workers employed in the then recently completed Social Security…