OIL: Blaustein v. Standard Oil

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The Blaustein claim: that Standard of Indiana, with the connivance of Standard of New Jersey, had prevented development of Pan Am as an integrated com pany, had caused Pan Am to lose millions of dollars.

When the suit went to trial Judge Rosenman looked down on as potent a battery of lawyers as ever appeared in one court: famed Elder Statesman Henry Lewis Stimson for the Blausteins, ex-Presidential Nominee John W. Davis for Standard of New Jersey, Chief Justice Hughes's onetime law partner Ralph Scott Harris for Standard of Indiana, and others. For 70 trial days and 10,361 pages, the testimony rolled in. Then Sam Rosen man sat down to think it out. His decision, wrapped up in 182 pages: Standard of New Jersey was not liable; but Standard of Indiana must account for its profits and Pan Am's losses, to be determined by a referee. The Blausteins' chief attorney, Statesman Stimson, had estimated them at a whacking $40,000,000.

But for Standard of Indiana, now 78% owner of Pan Am, any judgment it may pay (if judgment is not reversed on appeal) will be 78% a case of moving money from one pocket to another.