United States v. Crocker National Corp‪.‬

Three questions involving application of Section 8 of the Clayton Act, 15 U.S.C. § 19, are raised on this appeal. The principal issue is whether Section 8 prohibits the same person from serving at the same time as a director of a bank and as a director of an insurance company with which the bank competes, when the competition is such that an agreement between the companies would violate the antitrust laws. A closely related issue is whether the statute prohibits interlocking directorates between a bank holding company and an insurance company, when the only competition is between the holding company's bank subsidiary and the insurance company. Finally, we are asked to decide whether, if otherwise within the reach of Section 8, such interlocking directorates are nonetheless excluded from coverage by the McCarran-Ferguson Act, 15 U.S.C. §§ 1011-1015. The district court held Section 8 does not apply to interlocking directorates between a bank and a non-bank or between a bank holding company and non-banks. However, assuming coverage, the court held that the McCarran-Ferguson Act would not exempt bank/insurance company interlocks from the antitrust laws.