Arapahoe Cnty. Public Airport Auth. v. Fed. Aviation Adm., No. 99-9508
| Decision Date | 09 March 2001 |
| Docket Number | No. 99-9508 |
| Citation | 242 F.3d 1213 |
| Parties | (10th Cir. 2001) ARAPAHOE COUNTY PUBLIC AIRPORT AUTHORITY, a political subdivision of the State of Colorado, Petitioner, v. FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION, Respondent, CITY OF GREENWOOD VILLAGE, Intervenor. REGIONAL AIRLINE ASSOCIATION, Amicus Curiae |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit |
Brian A. Magoon (Ronald S. Loser with him on the briefs) of Brega & Winters, P.C., Denver, Colorado, for Petitioner.
Christine N. Kohl (David W. Ogden, Acting Assistant Attorney General, and Michael Jay Singer, Department of Justice, with her on the brief), Department of Justice, Washington, D.C., for Respondent.
Constance E. Brooks (Michael B. Marinovich and Christine A. Longhitano with her on the briefs) of C.E. Brooks & Associates, P.C., Denver, Colorado, for Intervenor.
Before BRORBY and McWILLIAMS, Circuit Judges, and ELLISON,* District Judge.
This case involves the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) decision to suspend petitioner's eligibility for discretionary federal grants, based on claimed violations of federal statutes and existing grant provisions. Petitioner Arapahoe County Public Airport Authority (Authority) and Intervenor City of Greenwood Village (City) urge us to set aside the decision for various reasons, not the least of which is the decision is incompatible with an earlier opinion issued by the Colorado Supreme Court. We exercise jurisdiction pursuant to 49 U.S.C. 46110 and 47106(d)(3). For the reasons set forth below, we deny the Petition for Review and affirm the FAA's order.
The Authority owns and operates Centennial Airport, which is located just south of Denver, Colorado. Operations at the airport historically have consisted of "unscheduled" commercial passenger and cargo service. In the course of operating the airport, the Authority has accepted millions of dollars in discretionary grants from the FAA. As part of the grant process, the Authority made assurances the airport would be "available ... for public use on reasonable terms and without unjust discrimination, to any person, firm, or corporation to conduct or to engage in any aeronautical activity for furnishing services to the public at the airport." However, within the same grant assurance, the FAA also recognized the Authority "may prohibit or limit any given type, kind or class of aeronautical use ... if such action is necessary for the safe operation of the airport or necessary to serve the civil aviation needs of the public."
Over the course of several years, Centennial Express Airlines (Centennial Express) divulged an interest in providing scheduled passenger service at Centennial Airport, culminating in an official application in May 1993. Centennial Express submitted its application despite the Authority's actions one month earlier placing a moratorium on the consideration of applications for scheduled passenger service. The moratorium was designed to provide the Authority time to determine whether it could legally prohibit scheduled service. While the Authority asked for guidance from the FAA on the question, it ultimately decided to completely ban all scheduled air carrier service without waiting to hear from the FAA.2 In contravention of the Authority's ban, Centennial Express initiated scheduled passenger service between Centennial Airport and Dalhart, Texas on December 20, 1994. The Authority immediately sought and obtained a temporary injunction in state district court to prevent Centennial Express from offering scheduled passenger service.
The state district court eventually granted the Authority a permanent injunction. Centennial Express successfully appealed the injunction to the Colorado Court of Appeals, but a plurality of the Colorado Supreme Court reversed the state court of appeals and reinstated the permanent injunction. See Arapahoe County Pub. Airport Auth. v. Centennial Express Airlines, Inc., 956 P.2d 587 (Colo. 1998) (en banc). The Colorado Supreme Court issued its opinion despite concurrent complaints on file with the FAA, and in so doing decided federal law did not preempt the Authority's ban on scheduled passenger service and the ban did not violate the terms of the non-discrimination grant assurances. See id. at 592-97. The FAA was not a party to this state litigation.
As alluded to in the previous paragraph, the agency decision-making process under review here got its start at the same time as the state litigation, and involves the same basic facts. Thomas Kehmeier, a Centennial Express stockholder, filed the first complaint with the FAA in August 1994, claiming the Authority's ban violated federal law and the grant assurances. Centennial Express filed its own complaint in January 1995. As the Colorado Supreme Court noted, the FAA had yet to rule on either complaint in 1998 when the court issued its opinion. Arapahoe County Pub. Airport Auth., 956 P.2d at 592. These initial complaints were filed pursuant to 14 C.F.R. Part 13. New rules, found at 14 C.F.R. Part 16, and entitled "Rules of Practice for Federally-Assisted Airport Enforcement Proceedings," went into effect December 16, 1996. Centennial Express filed a second complaint under the new part 16 rules on February 23, 1998, just two months prior to the Colorado Supreme Court's decision. Centennial Express filed the second complaint even though the company had voluntarily surrendered its FAA operating certificate in January 1996.
After consolidating the three complaints, and despite the then-existing Colorado Supreme Court decision to the contrary, FAA's Director of the Office of Airport Safety and Standards issued an initial determination on August 21, 1998, concluding the ban violated the grant assurances and federal law. The Authority requested a hearing,3 which was held over two days in November 1998, and resulted in an affirmance of the director's initial decision. The Authority and the City subsequently appealed the hearing officer's decision to the FAA Associate Administrator for Airports, who issued the FAA's Final Agency Decision and Order affirming the previous decisions. The Authority then filed the current petition for review, and the City filed a Notice of Intervention pursuant to 10th Circuit Rule 15.2(A). 4
Our review of the FAA's final decision and order suspending the Authority's eligibility for discretionary federal grants is governed by the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. 706. 5 Within this context, we review matters of law de novo. See Wyoming Farm Bureau Fed'n v. Babbitt, 199 F.3d 1224, 1231 (10th Cir. 2000). However, the FAA's findings of fact are conclusive if supported by substantial evidence. See id; 49 U.S.C. 46110(c). The substantial-evidence standard does not allow us to displace the FAA's "choice between two fairly conflicting views, even though the court would justifiably have made a different choice had the matter been before it de novo." Babbitt, 199 F.3d at 1231 (quotation marks and citation omitted); see also Trimmer v. United States Dep't of Labor, 174 F.3d 1098, 1102 (10th Cir.1999) (same).
The Authority contends the final FAA decision and order should be set aside for the following three "errors of law:" (1) the Colorado Supreme Court opinion reinstating the permanent injunction against Centennial Express "is final, preclusive and dispositive;" (2) the Authority and not the FAA determines whether scheduled passenger service will be prohibited as necessary for the safe operation of the airport and to serve the public's civil aviation needs; and (3) any allowable scheduled passenger service must be limited to aircraft designed for nine or fewer passenger seats.6 We address each alleged error in turn.
The Authority argues, pursuant to the Full Faith and Credit Act, 28 U.S.C. 1738, that Arapahoe County Public Airport Authority v. Centennial Express Airlines, 956 P.2d 587, "is final, preclusive and dispositive" of the issues resolved in the FAA's final order. The Full Faith and Credit Act provides that the "judicial proceedings of any court of any such State ... shall have the same full faith and credit in every court within the United States ... as they have by law or usage in the courts of such State ... from which they are taken." 28 U.S.C. 1738.
The FAA asserts 28 U.S.C. 1738 is not technically implicated here because it is an agency rather than a court, see American Airlines, Inc. v. Dep't of Transp., 202 F.3d 788, 799 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 120 S. Ct. 2762 (2000); however, "[b]ecause most agency decisions may be reviewed in federal courts, and those courts must follow section 1738, [the FAA] therefore assume[s] that a common law rule of preclusion, like that embodied in section 1738, governs federal agency proceedings." We agree with the FAA and the Fifth Circuit that the preclusive effect, if any, of the Colorado Supreme Court decision derives from the common law doctrines of res judicata and issue preclusion (collateral estoppel), not 1738. See id. at 799-800 & n.6. We further agree these common law doctrines extending full faith and credit to state court determinations are trumped by the Supremacy Clause if the effect of the state court judgment or decree is to restrain the exercise of the United States' sovereign power by imposing requirements that are contrary to important and established federal policy. See id. at 800; see also Midgett v. United States, 603 F.2d 835, 845 (Ct.Cl. 1979). Balancing, de novo,7 the common law justification for full faith and credit with the competing policy supporting the Supremacy Clause, we conclude the FAA is not required to give preclusive effect to the Colorado Supreme Court's decision in Arapahoe County Public Airport Authority v. Centennial Express Airlines.
We begin...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Sierra Club v. U.S. Envtl. Prot. Agency
...original parties").We have held that parties intervening as petitioners cannot raise new issues. See Arapahoe Cty. Public Airport Auth. v. FAA , 242 F.3d 1213, 1217 n.4 (10th Cir. 2001) ("[A]s an intervening party, the City may join issue only on matters brought before the court by the Auth......
-
Nat'l Fed'n of the Blind v. United Airlines Inc.
...of "service"); Koutsouradis v. Delta Air Lines, Inc., 427 F.3d 1339, 1343 (11th Cir.2005) (same); Arapahoe Cnty. Pub. Airport Auth. v. F.A.A., 242 F.3d 1213, 1222 (10th Cir.2001) (citing the Hodges definition); Smith v. Comair, Inc., 134 F.3d 254, 259 (4th Cir.1998) (same); Travel All Over ......
-
St. Augustine-St. Johns Cnty. Airport Auth. v. Boomerang, LLC
...concerns are preeminent." Doc. 14 at 21-25. For this argument, Boomerang relies heavily on Arapahoe County Public Airport Authority v. Federal Aviation Administration, 242 F.3d 1213 (10th Cir. 2001). Doc. 14 at 26-28. In Arapahoe, an airport authority banned scheduled service and thereafter......
-
Welch v. U.S. Air Force, 5:00-CV-392-C.
...before the Court de novo, this Court cannot displace the agencies' choice between two conflicting views. Arapahoe County Pub. Airport Auth. v. FAA 242 F.3d 1213, 1218 (10th Cir.2001). As a general matter, this Court must "defer to [Defendants'] reasonable exercise of its judgment and techni......