New England Legal Foundation v. Massachusetts Port Authority, s. 88-1971
| Decision Date | 04 May 1989 |
| Docket Number | Nos. 88-1971,s. 88-1971 |
| Citation | 883 F.2d 157 |
| Parties | NEW ENGLAND LEGAL FOUNDATION, et al., Plaintiffs, Appellants, v. MASSACHUSETTS PORT AUTHORITY, Defendant, Appellee. NATIONAL BUSINESS AIRCRAFT ASSOCIATION, INC., et al., Plaintiffs, Appellants, v. MASSACHUSETTS PORT AUTHORITY, Defendant, Appellee. AIRCRAFT OWNERS AND PILOTS ASSOCIATION, Plaintiff, Appellant, v. MASSACHUSETTS PORT AUTHORITY, Defendant, Appellee. MASSACHUSETTS PORT AUTHORITY, Petitioner, v. UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION, Respondent. State of Maine, The Air Freight Association, Regional Air Carrier Parties, The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, General Aviation Manufacturers Association, and National Business Aircraft Association, Intervenors. to 88-1973 and 88-2227. . Heard |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit |
John S. Fredericksen, Regional Airline Ass'n, Calvin Davison, Lorraine B. Halloway, and Crowell & Moring, on brief, Washington, D.C., for Regional Air Carrier Parties, intervenor.
Richard B. Michaud, Bernkopf, Goodman & Baseman, Boston, Mass., Stephen A. Alterman, and Meyers & Alterman, on brief, Washington, D.C., for Air Freight Association, intervenor.
John C. Hunt, on brief, for intervenor, State of Maine, Maine Dept. of Transp.
Frank W. Gibson, on brief, Cummaquid, Mass., for NEED Logan, amicus curiae.
Crocker Snow, on brief, for Aero Club of New England, amicus curiae.
W.N. DeWitt, Carolyn O'Connor, Boston, Mass., on brief, for The New England Council, Inc., amicus curiae.
Scott P. Lewis, Michael T. Gass, Palmer & Dodge, on brief, for Airport Operators Council Int'l, amicus curiae.
George Marshall Moriarty, Roscoe Trimmer, Jr., Richard J. Lettieri, Ropes & Gray, Charles E. Dewitt, Jr., Ira M. Wallach, Massachusetts Port Authority, Boston, Mass.
Diane R. Liff, Asst. Gen. Counsel for Litigation, Robert D. Young, Barry L. Molar, Attys., Dept. of Transp., Washington, D.C.
David C. Shilton, Peter R. Steenland, Jr., Appellate Section, Dept. of Justice, Land and Natural Resources Div., Washington, D.C.
Judith Richards Hope, Joseph E. Schmitz, Scott M. Flicker, Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker, and Stanley J. Green, on brief, Washington, D.C., for intervenor, General Aviation Mfrs. Ass'n.
Raymond J. Rasenberger, Washington, D.C., for intervenor, National Business Aircraft Ass'n.
John S. Yodice, Donald L. Hardison, Washington, D.C., Kirk Y. Griffin, Boston, Mass., for Aircraft Owners and Pilots Ass'n.
Wayne S. Henderson, New England Legal Foundation, Boston, Mass., for New England Legal Foundation.
Before BOWNES and TORRUELLA, Circuit Judges, and RE, * Judge.
The single issue presented by these appeals is the validity of a new landing fee scheme enacted for Boston-Logan International Airport ("Logan") by the Massachusetts Port Authority ("Massport") as part of the initial step of a multi-phased Program for Airport Capacity Efficiency ("PACE"). This issue, although easily stated, is not so easily resolved.
Legislative confusion has permitted the coetaneous litigation of this controversy in both judicial and administrative forums. As was aptly put by a judge of this court in relation to other circumstance, "this jurisdictional dichotomy has created a confused class of circumforaneous litigants, wandering perplexedly from forum to forum in search of remediation." Maine v. Thomas, 874 F.2d 883, 884-85 (1st Cir.1989). The result has been apparently conflicting decisions in these separate forums.
Before we can reach the merits of this controversy we set out all of its entangled background in detail.
Background facts
Massport is a public instrumentality of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts 1 which owns and operates the public port facilities of the Commonwealth, including those at Logan Airport in Boston and at Hanscom Field in Bedford, Massachusetts. In early 1988, Massport conducted hearings to consider PACE, an overall plan intended to maximize the efficient use of Logan Airport. Phase I of the plan, dealing principally with the landing fee schedule to be applied to aircraft using Logan, was approved by the Massport Board of Members on March 16, 1988 and was due to go into effect on July 1, 1988. It is the central issue of the controversy before us.
The principal feature of Phase I is a landing fee structure consisting of two elements: first, a standard landing fee charge of $91.78 per landing, irrespective of aircraft size; and second, an additional charge of $0.5417 per 1000 pounds of landed aircraft weight. This new method of calculating the landing fee is different from the formula used up to the present, which was based solely on aircraft weight. The old method is the standard manner utilized throughout the country for determining landing fees. 2
The effect of the new fee structure, as compared to the pre-PACE method, is to drastically increase the landing costs of smaller aircraft while conversely decreasing that of larger ones. For example, Massport's own estimates show that under the new fee schedule, the landing fee of a Beechcraft 1900 (a small aircraft) will increase from $25.00 to $101.47, a 306% increase, while that of a Boeing 747 will decrease from $823.99 to $450.31, a 45% reduction.
An additional feature under the new method is that aircraft operations that meet Massport's criteria for what is an "essential air service hub operation" 3 are exempt from the standard fee portion of the new landing fee, paying instead the pre-PACE minimum charge of $25.00 per landing. During July and August 1988, Massport received exemption applications from 18 and 17 communities respectively, and granted a total of 16 of these requests.
The administrative proceedings are commenced
On March 16, 1988, the date of approval by Massport of Phase I, the National Business Aircraft Association ("NBAA") 4 filed a complaint 5 with the Federal Aviation Administration ("FAA"), an agency of the Department of Transportation ("DOT"), claiming the invalidity of the landing fee structure because it was not "fair and reasonable" and was discriminatory against "small aircraft." Similar complaints were filed on April 6, 1988 by the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association ("AOPA") 6 and, on May 3, 1988, by the Regional Airline Association ("RAA").
Thereafter, on May 20, 1988, the Secretary of Transportation ("Secretary") concluded that reasonable grounds existed for commencing a formal investigation of these complaints, and issued an "Order of Investigation" referring the matter to a "Presiding Officer" (administrative law judge-"ALJ") with instructions to the effect that:
We will expect the Presiding Officer to receive evidence, conduct a hearing, and issue a written report, including a summary of proposed conclusions, pursuant to 14 C.F.R. Sec. 13.127, on the various issues that have been raised by the complaints--specifically, (1) whether the new landing fee structure (and the companion exemption provisions) that Massport has adopted for Logan Airport violate section 511 of the Airport and Airway Improvement Act, and the grant assurances that have been entered into pursuant thereto, on the grounds that they are not "fair and reasonable"; (2) whether the new landing fee structure (and the companion exemption provisions) are "unjustly discriminatory" under that section and the related grant agreements; (3) whether the new landing fee structure violates the Anti-Head Tax Act or section 308 of the Federal Aviation Act; (4) whether the new landing fee structure (and the companion exemption provisions) invade the authority of this Department in violation of section 307 of the Federal Aviation Act; and (5) whether the new landing fee structure (and the companion exemption provisions) are contrary to the prohibitions set forth in section 105 of the Federal Aviation Act.
We will also expect the Presiding Officer to address the following factual issues in his report--(1) whether the cost allocation methodology that underlies Massport's new landing fee structure is fair and reasonable (a) on its face, and (b) as applied to Logan Airport; (2) the likely effect of the new fee structure on commuter airlines and general aviation in terms of the costs it would impose on them, their ability to continue to operate at Logan airport and the effect on commuter airline fares and service; and (3) the appropriateness of Hanscom Field, another aviation facility operated by Massport, as an alternative to Logan Airport as a landing field for general aviation and/or commuter airline users.
We direct that the Presiding Officer's written report be issued on or before November 15, 1988.
The Secretary requested "that Massport defer its implementation of the new fees until [after completion of the] investigation of the issues raised in these complaints."
The district court actions are commenced
Meanwhile, on April 15, 1988, the New England Legal Foundation ("NELF") 7 filed an action against Massport in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts on behalf of itself, the Associated Industries of Vermont, 8 various commuter airlines, 9 and two business entities that owned small aircraft using Logan's facilities, 10 seeking declaratory and injunctive relief to prevent the enforcement of the PACE landing fee structure. On April 19, 1988, the NBAA filed a similar suit on behalf of itself and two Massachusetts business associations, 11 and finally on June 5, 1988, the AOPA also filed a separate action. All three actions were consolidated and contain similar allegations.
The substance of these complaints is analogous to that of the administrative charges, although they contain additional constitutional and statutory allegations. As in the administrative proceedings, the primary contention is that by shifting the cost burden of the landing fees from the larger aircraft to the smaller, the new method conflicts with various federal statutes that regulate the national...
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