In any case, to prove either an illegal monopoly or attempted monopoly, Hunstville Surgery would have to establish that Memorial Hospital or BCBSTX has the requisite market power in the relevant market. Huntsville Surgery asserts that the Contract is unlawful, as a matter of law, under section 15.05(a) and (b) of the Act, relying on Southern Health Ass'n v. Harris Memorial Methodist Hospital, 180 S.W.2d 169 (Tex.Civ.App.-Fort Worth 1944, writ ref'd w.o.m.). See Huntsville Surgery Brief, supra note 5, at 7-8.

Such arrangements have generally been struck down under laws forbidding unreasonable restrictions on free competition since they deny competitors free access to the market for the tied product solely because of the seller's economic power or leverage on the sale of the main product. Long v. Arizona Portland Cement Co., 89 Ariz. 366, 362 P.2d 741 (1961); Corwin v. Los Angeles Newspaper Service Bureau, Inc., 4 Cal.3d 842, 94 Cal.Rptr. 785, 484 P.2d 953 (1971); State ex rel. Brown v. Napco, 44 Ohio App.2d 140, 336 N.E.2d 439 (1975); Southern Health Ass'n v. Harris Memorial Methodist Hospital, 180 S.W.2d 169 (Tex. Civ.App. 1944); Wright v. Southern Ice Co., 144 S.W.2d 933 (Tex.Civ.App. 1940). The United States Supreme Court in Northern Pacific Railway Co. v. United States, 356 U.S. 1, 5-6, 78 S.Ct. 514, 518, 2 L.Ed.2d 545 (1958) states the applicable law on tying arrangements under anti-trust law:

The contract is not ambiguous, so evidence of an interpretation or construction that Mrs. Albin was an agent in carrying out the contract's purpose is not admissible to vary its clear provisions. Climatic Air Distributors of South Texas v. Climatic Air Sales, supra; see also Patrizi v. McAninch, 153 Tex. 389, 269 S.W.2d 343 (Texas 1954), and Southern Health Ass'n v. Harris Memorial Methodist Hospital, 180 S.W.2d 169 (Tex.Civ.App. Fort Worth 1944, ref., w.m.). The fraud allegations of Mrs. Albin's supplemental pleadings do not state a cause of action cognizable in a court of law.