Evansville-Vanderburgh Airport Authority Dist. v. Delta Air Lines, Inc., EVANSVILLE-VANDERBURGH

• Decision Date: 25 October 1972
• Docket Number: No. 869S179,EVANSVILLE-VANDERBURGH,869S179
• Citation: 259 Ind. 464,288 N.E.2d 136
• Parties: AIRPORT AUTHORITY DISTRICT et al., Appellants, v. DELTA AIR LINES, INC., et al., Appellees.
• Court: Indiana Supreme Court

Page 136

288 N.E.2d 136

259 Ind. 464

EVANSVILLE-VANDERBURGH AIRPORT AUTHORITY DISTRICT et al., Appellants, v. DELTA AIR LINES, INC., et al., Appellees.

No. 869S179.

Supreme Court of Indiana.

Oct. 25, 1972.

Howard P. Trockman, James F. Flynn, Evansville (Trockman, Flynn & Swain, Evansville, of counsel), for appellants.

Fred P. Bamberger, Jeffrey R. Kinney, Evansville (Bamberger, Foreman, Oswald & Hahn, Evansville, of counsel), John K. Mallory, Jr., J. Eugene Marans, Washington, D.C., (Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton, Washington, D.C., of counsel), for appellees.

DeBRULER, Justice.

This opinion is supplemental to the original opinion handed down by this Court in Evansville-Vanderburgh Airport Authority District, et al. v. Delta Airlines, et al. (1970), Ind., 265 N.E.2d 27. In that opinion this Court affirmed a trial court judgment enjoining the appellant-Authority from enforcing an Ordinance imposing a $1.00 tax on each enplaning commercial airline passenger. The trial court decision rested on several constitutional grounds and one non-constitutional State ground. This Court affirmed the trial court by holding that the tax was invalid under the Art. 1, § 8, cl. 3 of the United States Constitution, 'The Commerce Clause'. On April 19, 1972, the United States Supreme Court reversed this Court's decision and held that the tax was not invalid under the Federal Constitution. Evansville-Vanderburgh Airport Authority District v. Delta Airlines, Inc. (1972), 405 U.S. 707, 92 S.Ct. 1349, 31 L.Ed.2d 620. The Supreme Court remanded the cause to this Court for further proceedings 'not inconsistent with this opinion'. Although the United States Supreme Court decision disposed of all the constitutional issues raised, the trial court judgment is still supported by the lone non-constitutional, purely state ground, the validity of which this Court has never determined. We now proceed to resolve that issue and finally dispose of this case.

The trial court conclusion of law which is at issue here reads:

'To the extent that the aforesaid $1.00 charge imposed by Ordinance No. 33 is asserted to be a service charge, the discriminatory application thereof, as established by the evidence in this cause, is without statutory legal authorization and is therefore an invalid and ultra vires act of the defendant Evansville-Vanderburgh Airport Authority District.'

The pertinent part of the legislative grant of authority to the Board reads as follows:

'In addition to the powers and duties conferred upon it elsewhere in this chapter, such board shall have full power and authority to do all acts necessary or reasonably incident to carrying out the purposes of this chapter including, but not in limitation thereof, the following:

'(9) To adopt a schedule of reasonable charges and to collect the same from all users of facilities and services within the jurisdiction of the district.'

In support of the trial court conclusion the appellees argue that that section of the statute renders the appellant powerless to impose the $1.00 tax only on enplaning commercial airline passengers and not on 'all users' of the facilities.

We do not agree. The statute clearly grants the appellant power to make the amount of a service charge or user fee depend on the extent of the use made of the facilities. There are many different facilities and services located at the airport, e.g. air...