(Filed 26 November, 1941.)
Conspiracy § 3: Monopolies § 2—
A complaint alleging that defendants conspired and agreed not to sell plaintiff ice, and that as a result thereof plaintiff’s business was ruined, fails to state a cause of action, and defendants’ demurrer thereto should have been sustained, C. S., 2559, et seq., not being applicable.
Appeal by defendants from Nettles, J., at July-August Term, 1941, of GastoN.
Reversed.
Civil action to recover damages resulting from an alleged unlawful combination in restraint of trade.
Plaintiff alleges that be is or has been engaged in tbe retail ice business in Gaston County; that defendants are engaged in tbe manufacture of ice for sale in tbe same territory; that bis contract with tbe Colonial Ice Company, under which he obtained ice at wholesale for sale at retail, having expired, the defendants conspired and agreed not to sell ice to the plaintiff; that by reason of such unlawful combination be is unable to obtain ice economically and at a price which will enable him to conduct bis business at a profit; and that as a result thereof his business has been ruined and destroyed.
*445The defendants demurred to tbe complaint for that it does not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action. In their demurrer they set out with particularity wherein the complaint is deficient.
When the cause came on to be heard the judge below overruled the demurrer and the defendants excepted and appealed.
W. H. Sanders and S. J. Durham for plaintiff, appellee.
Cherry ■& Holloiuell for Colonial Ice Co., Inc.; H. B. Gaston for Montiell Ice & Fuel Co., Inc.; 0. F. Mason, Jr., for Adams Ice & Coal Co., Inc., and R. H. Adams, personally; and G. B. Mason for Cherryville Ice & Fuel Co., Inc., and Lincolnton Ice & Fuel Co., appellants.
Per Curiam.
This action involves a controversy of a private nature between plaintiff and the defendants. No public interest is involved. Hence, C. S., 2559, et seq., have no application. McNeill v. Hall, ante, 73, and Rice v. Asheville Ice Co., 204 N. C., 768, 169 S. E., 707, are controlling. The judgment below is
Eeversed.