  We prove the following result, which is motivated by the recent work of
Kurano and Roberts on Serre's positivity conjecture. Assume that (R,m) is a
local ring with finitely-generated module M such that R/ann(M) is quasi-unmixed
and contains a field, and that p and q are prime ideals in the support of M
such that p is analytically unramified, p+q is m-primary and e(M_p)=e(M). Then
dim(R/p)+dim(R/q)\leq dim(M). We also prove a similar theorem in a special case
of mixed characteristic. Finally, we provide several examples to explain our
assumptions as well as an example of a noncatenary, local domain R with prime
ideal p such that e(R_p)>e(R)=1.
