Weyerhaeuser Co. v. Ross-Simmons Hardwood Lumber Co.

Weyerhaeuser (defendant), after heavy investment expanding its hardwood lumber operations, needed more logs and, as log prices rose while lumber prices fell, competitor Ross-Simmons (plaintiff) suffered heavy losses and shut down in 2001. Ross-Simmons sued, claiming Weyerhaeuser engaged in unlawful predatory bidding for logs to force it out of business; a jury found for Ross-Simmons, and the court of appeals affirmed, rejecting the Brooke Group predatory-pricing test as inapplicable to bidding claims. Weyerhaeuser appealed.

Whether a predatory-bidding claim requires a plaintiff to show that the defendant's bidding caused below-cost pricing for its outputs and that the defendant had a dangerous probability of recouping its losses.