Case Description
New York’s Attorney General Spitzer, acting under Section 7 of the Clayton Act and Section 340 of New York’s Donnelly Act, challenged a series of acquisitions completed over several years that Service Corporation International (SCI) had made of funeral homes in New York City that mainly serve the Jewish community. The Attorney General, with the assistance of outside counsel, alleged that the resulting monopolization had lead to high prices. SCI agreed to a consent decree, filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, that required SCI to divest a funeral home in Manhattan and two funeral homes in Brooklyn, subject to the Attorney General’s approval of the purchasers. The Manhattan property, Plaza Memorial Chapel, was acquired by a new non-profit community group organized for that purpose and subsequently has competed head-to-head with SCI’s flagship funeral home, Riverside Memorial Chapel. New York also was awarded attorney fees.