The rebate has come in the form of money-back coupons published in 124 newspapers all over the state. The coupons are redeemable until the end of August. Though they are worth only 20¢ (for less than five pounds) and 35¢ (for more), the total settlement amounts to some $3 million. The seven million households involved make it one of the largest class-action suits in U.S. history.
Brinker, 58, a divorced mother of two who works in the classified ad department of the Los Angeles Times in San Francisco, began her crusade against sugar manufacturers back in 1975, when she read an article on industry price-fixing. "It wasn't just the price of sugar that went up," she says. "The price of all kinds of food stuffs went up too—candies, bakery goods, frozen foods, soft drinks. I don't use them, but millions of Americans do."
On the commuter ferry to her Marin County home that day was her personal attorney, Ronald Lovitt, who explained that the antitrust suits the Justice Department had lodged against the companies were accompanied by 130-odd companion suits brought by companies that used the sugar. But, he noted, verdicts would benefit only wholesale customers, not consumers. The only way to recoup anything for individuals, he said, was a class-action suit. "Doggone it, let's go ahead," Madelyne said—and so they did.
The victory was hard-won. Under federal law all plaintiffs in a class action must be notified of the suit—in this case every consumer of sugar in California. "Fortunately," says Lovitt, "in California we have good legislation for class-action suits, and for antitrust violators. California is unique in this way." But it took Brinker and Lovitt three years to establish that the state rather than the federal courts had jurisdiction in the case; the sugar companies appealed stubbornly all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which refused to hear the case.
Meanwhile most of the companies had pleaded nolo contendere (no contest) to the Justice Department's antitrust charges—a plea which is not an admission of guilt but by which they stood convicted. They settled out of court with the wholesalers for an estimated $60 million. Last December the companies decided to settle out of court with Brinker as well. How did they figure what the rebate should be? Says lawyer Lovitt, whose San Francisco firm also won $135,000 for its five years' work on the case: "We thought it would be nice if every household in California could have something like a free pound of sugar."
For Madelyne Brinker, who uses saccharin, the battle of the sugar bowl was purely selfless. "I hardly ever touch the stuff," she says, "though I did use my 20¢ coupon for a pound of brown sugar. I just believe in free enterprise. Maybe this suit will stop other companies from price-fixing."
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
