Costner v. Blount National Bank of Maryville Tennessee

In Costner v. Blount National Bank of Maryville Tennessee, 578 F.2d 1192 (6th Cir.1978), a fifty-percent owner of an automobile dealership obtained a personal loan from the defendant bank to purchase the remainder of the dealership's outstanding stock. The bank imposed several credit conditions in the parties' loan agreement, including requirements that the dealership sell a substantial share of its retail commercial paper to the bank and that the dealership employ a person designated by the bank to ensure compliance with the arrangement. The agreement so clearly violated section 1972's anti-tying provisions that the bank on appeal conceded such a violation and contended only that its illegal tying arrangement did not damage the plaintiff and that it did not sufficiently affect interstate commerce to constitute a violation of the Sherman Act.