Airline Car Rental v. Shreveport Airport Authority, Civ. A. No. 85-1201.

• Decision Date: 02 June 1986
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 85-1201.
• Citation: 667 F. Supp. 293
• Parties: AIRLINE CAR RENTAL, INC. v. SHREVEPORT AIRPORT AUTHORITY.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Western District of Louisiana

667 F. Supp. 293

AIRLINE CAR RENTAL, INC. v. SHREVEPORT AIRPORT AUTHORITY.

Civ. A. No. 85-1201.

United States District Court, W.D. Louisiana, Shreveport Division.

June 2, 1986.

Charles W. Strickland, Frances Baker Jack, Shreveport, La., for plaintiff.

John M. Madison, Jr., Wiener, Weiss, Madison and Howell, Shreveport, La., for defendant.

VERON, District Judge.

RULING

On April 1, 1985, the Shreveport Airport Authority passed a resolution entitled "Resolution Establishing Regulations and Fees for Rental Car Businesses Operating at the Shreveport Regional Airport Without a Lease," whereby it stated that it was necessary to impose charges on entities who did not have contracts with the Authority but who nevertheless used airport facilities in the furtherance of their commercial enterprises. Specifically the Authority intended to levy charges on non-tenant rental car business who pick up and supply services to passengers from the airport, the stated purpose for the revenue so raised to "retire debts incurred for the construction of facilities, pay for Airport equipment and maintenance, protect the public, preserve order, provide for the public health, safety and welfare, enhance the welfare of the Authority, and govern the Airport." The resolution requires non-tenant rental car businesses to obtain from the Authority a Rental Car Non-Tenant Business Permit, which permit would be issued upon compliance with certain requirements, including an agreement "to pay for the duration of the permit to the Authority seven (7%) per cent of all gross business receipts derived from the rental of vehicles to passengers picked up at the Airport...."

Plaintiff, Airline Car Rental, Inc., operated a car rental service located near the Shreveport Regional Airport at the time the resolution was passed and, according to its complaint, it derived the majority of its revenue from customers who travel through the airport and who have already made a reservation for use of an Airline vehicle. In order to transport its customers from the airport to its facility, plaintiff operated a courtesy shuttle service from the designated passenger loading and unloading zones at the airport to its own premises.

Plaintiff has brought the present action seeking declaratory, injunctive, and other relief from the described resolution. Defendant filed a Motion to Dismiss under Rule 12(b)(6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, i.e. failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. A hearing on the motion was held December 18, 1985 and the matter was taken under advisement.

DISCUSSION

Before proceeding to the myriad theories of recovery set forth by plaintiff we must consider what is the purpose of the 12(b)(6) motion. Wright & Miller describes it as follows:

The purpose of a motion under Rule 12(b)(6) is to test the formal sufficiency of the statement of the claim for relief. Thus, the provision must be read in conjunction with Rule 8(a), which sets forth the requirements for pleading a claim in federal court and calls for "a short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief." Only when the pleading fails to meet this liberal standard is it subject to dismissal under Rule 12(b)(6).

Wright & Miller, Federal Practice and Procedure: Civil § 1357 at p. 590 (footnotes omitted). It goes on to state:

The Rule 12(b)(6) motion also must be distinguished from a motion for summary judgment under Rule 56, which goes to the merits of the claim and is designed to test whether there is a genuine issue of material fact. The Rule 12(b)(6) motion, as has been mentioned above, only tests whether the claim has been adequately stated in the complaint. Thus, on a motion under Rule 12(b)(6), the court's inquiry essentially is limited to the content of the complaint; summary judgment, on the other hand, involves the use of pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and affidavits.

Wright & Miller supra at p. 592 (footnotes omitted) (emphasis added).

The 12(b)(6) motion is not favored and should rarely be granted, Madison v. Purdy, 410 F.2d 99 (5th Cir.1969), resolution on the merits being preferred to disposition on the technical grounds of failure to state a claim. See, for example, Blessing v. United States, 447 F.Supp. 1160 at 1192-93 (E.D.Penn.1978) and cases cited therein. "The question therefore is whether in the light most favorable to plaintiff, and with every doubt resolved in his behalf, the complaint states any valid claim for relief." Wright & Miller, supra at p. 601 (footnotes omitted). See also Quinonez v. National Association of Securities Dealers, Inc., 540 F.2d 824 (5th Cir.1976) and cases cited therein. Stated another way, "a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim should not be granted unless it appears to a certainty that the plaintiff would be entitled to no relief under any state of facts which could be proved in support of his claim." Des Isles v. Evans, 200 F.2d 614 at 615-16 (5th Cir.1952), quoting 2 Moore's Federal Practice, 2d Ed., § 8.13, p. 1653.

Having said that, we will now take each theory of recovery alleged by plaintiff, in the order in which defendant argues for dismissal, and view them in light of the purposes and tests outlined above.

Count I

Interstate Commerce

A. Airline's Business Does Not Constitute Interstate Commerce.

In support of this ground for dismissal, defendant cites United States v. Yellow Cab Company, 332 U.S. 218, 67 S.Ct. 1560, 91 L.Ed. 2010 (1947), as authority for the proposition that "an individual or company can be engaged in a business tangentially related to interstate commerce and still not fall within the ambit of the Commerce Clause." Defendant's Memorandum in Support of Motion to Dismiss (hereafter "Defendant's Memo") at p. 4. Defendant compares the taxi service business scrutinized in Yellow Cab to that of plaintiff here in that all traveling here (as it was there) is done intrastate. It concludes that Airline's business, like Yellow Cab's, does not constitute interstate commerce.

In opposition to this contention, plaintiff shows that it alleged in its petition that approximately 80% of its business is derived from prearranged reservations made through a national reservation system.

In Charter Limousine, Inc. v. Dade County Board of County Commissioners, 678 F.2d 586 (5th Cir.1982), the court found that plaintiff's operations (ground transportation to and from Miami International Airport) were in the stream of interstate commerce, "even though they take place wholly within a single state," 678 F.2d at 589, since substantially all of Charter's limousine service was prearranged by interstate communications. A review of the record here shows that plaintiff's complaint does in fact allege that a great deal of its operations are prearranged by interstate communications; accordingly, plaintiff has alleged facts which, if proven, would show that it engages in interstate commerce. We cannot dismiss its interstate commerce claim on the ground that plaintiff's business does not constitute interstate commerce.

The Authority further claims that this count should be dismissed because a 10% of gross receipts fee was found to be a "commonly accepted charge throughout the nation for use of Airport facilities" in Toye Bros., Yellow Cab Company v. Irby, 437 F.2d 806 (5th Cir.1971). It concludes that "the fact that the 10% fee charged to those who are actually engaged in interstate commerce has been recognized in this Circuit as reasonable and customary, and as not constituting a burden upon interstate commerce, is further reason for Count I of Airline's complaint to be dismissed." Defendant's Memo at p. 8.

This argument ignores the scope and function of a Rule 12(b)(6) motion. Whether or not plaintiff will ultimately prevail on this count is not up for our consideration here. "Whether this is all steam, or whether there is some substance depends on the proof offered either on a trial or on a motion for summary judgment demonstrating that there is no genuine controversy as to this critical, decisive issue under applicable legal principles." Arthur H. Richland Company v. Harper, 302 F.2d 324 at 326 (5th Cir.1962) (citations omitted). Plaintiff has alleged that a great deal of its operations are prearranged by interstate commerce, thus it has effectively stated a claim that it engages in interstate commerce. Charter Limousine, supra. Additionally, plaintiff has alleged that the resolution has no reasonable relationship to its stated purpose and that the fee imposed is "wholly unrelated to any approximation of the costs to the Airport of Airline's use of the roadway and loading area." See ¶ s 28 and 32 respectively of plaintiff's complaint. Accordingly, Airline has alleged that the resolution is an impermissible burden on interstate commerce. See Park 'N Fly of Texas, Inc. v. City of Houston, 327 F.Supp. 910 (S.D.Texas 1971) ("If there is (1) a real relation to the protection of the health, welfare, and safety of the people, and (2) the regulation is reasonable in its requirements and classifications, the measure imposed by the state or city is a legitimate exercise of its power." 327 F.Supp. at 921 (emphasis provided)). Whether or not plaintiff will ultimately prevail on these allegations is of no concern to this court on this motion, regardless of the fact that jurisprudence has previously held an allegedly similar burden to be reasonable. If the facts of the Toye case are so similar to those here that defendant can state that the fee charged is not an unreasonable burden on commerce and that it is entitled to judgment on that issue as a matter of law, then it can raise that point on a motion for summary judgment or at a trial on the merits.

B. The Commerce Clause Does Not Apply to Government Entities as Market Participants.

The Authority also claims that Count I of plaintiff's complaint should be dismissed because defendant is not subject to...