NEW ORLEANS (Legal Newsline) – The battleground is cemeteries in New Orleans, and the defendant says they are its home turf.
New Orleans Archdiocesan Cemeteries on Dec. 13 filed a motion to dismiss an antitrust lawsuit started by Witches Brew Tours, a company that argues it has been shut out of the cemetery tourism game in New Orleans.
WBT’s lawsuit says the industry focuses almost exclusively on St. Louis Cemetery Nos. 1 and 2, which generate millions of dollars each year.
“The property at issue is a privately owned, religious cemetery located in New Orleans, Louisiana, and owned by the New Orleans Archdiocesan Cemeteries,” the motion says.
No. 1 is the oldest cemetery in New Orleans, one of the 10 oldest in the nation still in operation and receives approximately 500,000 visitors in a year. Nos. 1 and 2 receive most of the cemetery tourism in New Orleans because of their long histories, proximity to the French Quarter, and the many famous people interred there. Witches Brew Tours alleges Defendants' conduct is anticompetitive and NOAC breached its obligations as a cemetery authority.
The defendant’s New Orleans Catholic Cemeteries closed No. 1 to the general public in 2015 in order to enter the industry itself, the suit says. Since then, it has been able to control the cost charged to tourist because of a lack of competition.
Witches Brew Tours seeks an order declaring that the defendants are in breach of its obligation to provide free and reasonable access to St. Louis Cemeteries Nos. 1 and 2.
But NOCC says the lawsuit fails because it can’t sustain its claims made under the Sherman and Clayton acts. The plaintiff fails to, according to the defendant, make allegations that establish the conduct at issue affects interstate commerce and the restraints in place are unreasonable.
“The restraint that Plaintiff complains of deals with a privately owned religious cemetery and the impact of the management and protection plan implemented... upon local New Orleans tour guides,” the motion says.
“As there is no ‘substantial and direct’ impact upon interstate commerce, the Sherman and Clayton acts are inapplicable which also defeats any supplemental jurisdiction claims…”