ATLANTA - A federal appeals court has upheld a ruling in favor of Anheuser-Busch in an antitrust lawsuit brought by a former Florida distributor, the family of the late baseball star Roger Maris. <br>
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The Maris family, which says the beer company improperly terminated its contract with the family in 1997, has prevailed against the brewing giant in Florida state courts. <br>
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The Marises, who had operated the Maris Distributing Company in the Gainesville-Ocala area for nearly 30 years, were awarded more than $72 million in their state court lawsuit, including damages and interest. <br>
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But a three-judge panel of the Eleventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a U.S. District Court ruling that the Maris family had ``failed to show actual anticompetitive effects as a result of the public ownership restriction.''
