Nash v. Air Terminal Services
| Citation | 85 F. Supp. 545 |
| Decision Date | 31 August 1949 |
| Docket Number | Civ. A. No. 351. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Virginia |
| Parties | NASH v. AIR TERMINAL SERVICES, Inc., et al. |
William S. Thompson, Washington, D. C., James A. Washington, Jr., Washington, D. C. and Edwin Brown, Alexandria, Va., for plaintiff.
Frederick J. Ball, Washington, D. C. and Thomas R. Dyson, Alexandria, Va., for defendant Air Terminal Services, Inc.
Gambrell, Harlan & Barwick, Atlanta, Ga. and Howard W. Smith, Jr., Alexandria, Va., for defendant Eastern Air Lines, Inc.
The plaintiff, a Negro citizen of the United States residing in the District of Columbia, here seeks to recover damages because she was refused service in the dining room and coffee shop at the Washington National Airport. She charges that the refusal was due solely to her race or color and avers a denial of her civil and constitutional rights. The defendants are Air Terminal Services, Inc., operator, as concessionaire of the United States Government, of all the restaurants at the airport, and Eastern Airlines, Inc., the air carrier on whose line she held a ticket for transportation. Defendants' motions to dismiss raise the issues. They contend that none of the six counts of the amended complaint sets forth a cause of action, because the defendants were under no obligation in law to serve the plaintiff or anyone else, that they could refuse to serve her without excuse, and that they have in no other manner deprived the plaintiff of her legal rights.
Washington National Airport is situated within the boundaries of the State of Virginia. With exceptions presently unimportant, Federal jurisdiction over the airport is exclusive. Acts of the General Assembly of Virginia of 1946, c. 26, p. 46; Public Law 208, 79th Congress, approved October 31, 1945, sec. 107, 59 Stat. 552, 553. The airport is owned by the United States and by an agreement dated February 19, 1941, the United States granted to the defendant Air Terminal Services, Inc., a Virginia corporation, the concession to operate, among other facilities there, "a dining room, coffee shop, soda fountain, employees' cafeteria, cafeteria for colored persons," for which the Government was to be paid a percentage of the concession's gross receipts.
Pursuant to this agreement Air Terminal Services, Inc. was operating several restaurants there on February 17, 1947, the date of the occurrences pleaded in this action.
On that day the plaintiff had purchased a ticket for transportation by the defendant Eastern Airlines, Inc. from the Washington Airport to New Orleans, Louisiana, Eastern being one of the lines licensed to enter and depart from the airport. With the plaintiff aboard, the plane took off but within a few minutes found it necessary to return to the airport because of mechanical difficulties. Announcement was made on the plane that upon disembarking each passenger should call at the desk of Eastern in the Terminal Building at the airport, for a chit entitling him to have dinner at the expense of Eastern at the airport or at any other convenient restaurant. Accordingly the plaintiff obtained a chit for her dinner. She presented it at the dining room operated by Air Terminal Services, Inc., in the Terminal Building, but she was refused service there because she was a Negro. She was also refused service at the coffee shop of Air Terminal Services for the same reason. She was told that she could be served only in the cafeteria provided for colored persons and operated by Air Terminal Services in the same building.
The agreement between the United States and Air Terminal Services requires that "provision for a separate cafeteria for colored persons shall also be made by the company". Article VII A(2). The same contract, Article VII G(10), stipulates that "the company shall comply at its own cost and expense with all Federal, State or local laws * * * now or hereafter in force, which may be applicable to the operation of its business at the Airport." "Food and beverages of good quality" must be offered "in the dining room, coffee shop, and soda fountain, employees' cafeteria and cafeteria for colored persons". Article VII A(1).
By statute in Virginia separation of white and colored persons is made the duty of every person operating "any place of public entertainment or public assemblage which is attended by both white and colored persons." Acts of the General Assembly of Virginia 1926, c. 569, pages 945, 946, Va.Code, sec. 1796a. The Assimilative Crimes Act, 18 U.S.C.A. § 13, formerly 18 U.S.Code 468, is specifically made applicable to the airport by Public Law 208, supra, thus constituting any act or omission occurring on the airport a Federal crime if it would have been a State crime in Virginia.
The incident of which the plaintiff complains arose at a time when segregation of the races was enforced at the airport by virtue of the instructions of the Administrator. As indicated by the quoted excerpts, segregation seems to have been contemplated by the concession-agreement between the United States and Air Terminal. Too, the Court is of the opinion that the Virginia statute already cited was then applicable to the restaurants and compelled under criminal penalties, the separation of the races. The latter became a requirement of the federal law prevailing on the airport, by virtue of the Assimilative Crimes Act, supra, and continued in force until the promulgation, on December 27, 1948, by the Administrator of Civil Aeronautics of his regulation expressing a different policy. See memorandum of this Court in civil action No. 394 entitled Air Terminal Servives, Inc. v. Rentzel, Administrator, D.C., 1949, 81 F.Supp. 611.
Therefore, on the date of the events here pleaded, segregation was mandatory at the airport. Failure of the defendant to enforce segregation would have subjected it to the penalties of the Assimilative Crimes Act and the regulations of the Administrator.
Five of the six counts are against Air Terminal Services, Inc., only, while Count III. is solely against Eastern and is the only count in the complaint against that defendant. All of the counts are predicated upon a denial of the rights of the plaintiff under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Federal Constitution and under the Civil Rights Act, 8 U.S.C.A. §§ 41, 43. We consider first the case against Air Terminal.
Count I. lays constitutional and statutory invalidity to the instructions of the Administrator and the laws of Virginia (made applicable by the Assimilative Crimes Act) requiring segregation at the airport. Counts IV., V....
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Williams v. Hot Shoppes, Inc.
...Albert V. Bryan who has had long experience with Virginia law) that this provision applies to restaurants. See Nash v. Air Terminal Services, 85 F.Supp. 545, 548 (1949); Air Terminal Services v. Rentzel, 81 F.Supp. 611 (1949). This widespread belief was also fostered by the repeated public ......
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Rogers v. Provident Hospital, 65 C 446.
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United States v. Holley
...regulations having the force of law. Air Terminal Services Inc. v. Rentzel, D.C.E.D.Va.1949, 81 F.Supp. 611; Nash v. Air Terminal Services Inc., D.C.E.D.Va.1949, 85 F.Supp. 545; Johnson v. Yellow Cab Co. 321 U.S. 383, 64 S.Ct. 622, 88 L.Ed. 814 If, therefore, we are correct in our ruling th......
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