Park'N Fly of Texas, Inc. v. City of Houston
| Citation | 327 F. Supp. 910 |
| Decision Date | 17 May 1971 |
| Docket Number | Civ. A. No. 70-H-991. |
| Parties | PARK'N FLY OF TEXAS, INC. v. The CITY OF HOUSTON, a Municipal Corporation, et al. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Southern District of Texas |
Theodore F. Schwartz, Ackerman, Schiller & Schwartz, Clayton, Mo., for plaintiff.
William A. Olson, City Atty., Winston P. Crowder, Senior Asst. City Atty., Houston, Tex., for defendants.
John F. Heard, Baker & Botts, Houston, Tex., for intervenor.
The plaintiff, Park 'N Fly, here brings suit against the City of Houston seeking a declaratory judgment that Municipal Ordinance No. 70-1951,1 an ordinance
COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED
of the City of Houston, violates the Constitution of the United States, Art. I, § 8, and Amendment Fourteen. Plaintiff further seeks injunctive relief pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2201 et seq., compelling the city to abstain from enforcement of the aforementioned ordinance. Also seeking this relief are intervenors, Budget-Rent-A-Car of Houston, Inc. and Budget Valet Airport Parking Corp. of America.
The regulations complained of, plaintiff alleges, by definition and classification arbitrarily and discriminatorily isolate some two dozen vehicles, including the vehicles belonging to plaintiff and intervenor, thereby preventing them from the proper, equal and advantageous use of the passenger and baggage receiving areas of the Air Passenger Terminal Buildings of the Houston Intercontinental Airport. It is further alleged that this isolation and arbitrary classification do not bear any reasonable relation to the exercise of the police power referred to in § 4 of the ordinance; that, in fact, the net effect of the ordinance imposes an undue burden on interstate commerce and renders more difficult the fulfillment of the stated purpose of the ordinance.
The Houston Intercontinental Airport is one of the major commercial airport terminal facilities within the United States, connecting the Houston metropolitan area either directly or indirectly with other commercial airports within and without the United States.2 It is served by eleven certificated airline carriers in the United States, ten of which are classified as major carriers, providing airline service for passengers and freight within and without the State of Texas. (Stipulation 4.)
All public streets, roads and highways terminate at the boundary of the Airport. The roadways located on the Airport have not been dedicated as public streets, but are open to the public, and provide the only means of ingress and egress for service transportation to and from the Terminal Building. (Stipulation 8.) There are two Terminal Buildings, each having an upper and lower level, both of which levels are directly accessible by vehicular transportation. (Stipulation 9.) The upper lobby level houses flight arrival and departure facilities, ticket counters, baggage check-in service, information counter, flight insurance counters, newsstands, food service areas, restrooms and other passenger conveniences. (Stipulation 10.) The lower levels of each Terminal provide a baggage claim area, car rental agencies, ground transportation service to Houston and surrounding areas, restrooms and barber shops. (Stipulation 11.) Skycaps, employed by the various airlines, are available to checking-in passengers at the upper level. Skycaps are also available to passengers at the lower lobby level, although generally they are not available to passengers checking in. (Stipulation 12.) A number of airlines further provide skycap service and baggage check-in on the upper level roadway of the Terminal Buildings. (Stipulation 14.)
An appreciable number of the passengers departing from Houston drive to the airport in their personal automobiles, and park at lots located on and off the airport premises. The on-airport parking facilities provided by the city include both "close parking" and "remote parking". The close parking facilities are at a convenient walking distance from the terminal, and courtesy vehicles known as "hustle-buses" have been provided without additional charge for the convenience of passengers using the remote on-airport parking facilities. Similarly, passengers who use off-airport parking as provided by the plaintiff and intervenor are also furnished transportation without additional charge to and from the parking lot and the airport via similar type "courtesy" buses. The total number of "courtesy" vehicles serving off-airport facilities such as hotels, motels, parking facilities and car rental agencies is approximately two dozen. Five of these are owned by plaintiff.
Plaintiff states that on August 12, 1970, the city enacted Ordinance 70-1389, providing for the promulgation of a regulation over the pick-up and discharge activities of courtesy vehicles. That ordinance was repealed on November 4, 1970, at which time the new ordinance, No. 70-1951, covering similar subject matter was enacted. This ordinance also regulates the pick-up and discharge of passengers and baggage transported by courtesy vehicles, by classifying vehicles under certain ordinance definitions and then specifying which facilities may be used by vehicles of each classification.
Ostensibly, the purpose for which the ordinance was enacted is "to establish and designate convenient locations * * * for loading and unloading near the Air Passenger Terminal Buildings and at other locations on the Airport, taking into consideration public safety, welfare, convenience and the orderly and free flow of traffic throughout the Airport." Section 2, Ordinance 70-1951. (emphasis added). See also Section 4 of Ordinance.
To effectuate this purpose, three of the classifications of passenger vehicles under the Ordinance, private automobiles excluded, are relevant to this case: The first two are specifically regulated, whereas the third category is unregulated: (1) charter vehicles, defined in § 1(a) of the ordinance encompasses buses, taxicabs and airport limousines; (2) commercial vehicles, defined in § 1(b), are composed of vehicles operated by off-airport hotels, motels, car rental agencies and parking companies and includes those vehicles maintained by the plaintiff and intervenor; (3) a third classification, purportedly established by omission of certain vehicles in definitions under §§ 1(a) and 1(b), is comprised of courtesy vehicles operated by the city on-airport concessionaire and car rental agencies. (Stipulation 21.)
Park 'N Fly and Budget maintain that their vehicles should be properly defined as courtesy vehicles rather than commercial, and allege that the courtesy vehicles which they operate as well as those of other off-airport business firms are permitted to pick-up and discharge passengers and their baggage only on the lower level, south side of the Air Passenger Terminal Buildings, an area not designed for discharging passengers. It is further alleged that enforcement of the ordinance against "courtesy" vehicles other than those of plaintiff and intervenor included in the definition of commercial vehicles (those operated by hotels and motels) has been in the past largely disregarded. Furthermore, it is alleged that by not specifically regulating the "hustle-bus", a vehicle operated by the city parking concessionaire which provides exactly the same service to customers of the city's remote on-airport parking lot as do Park 'N Fly and Budget in their operations of off-airport parking, the ordinance again discriminates against plaintiff and intervenor.
It is undisputed that the "hustle-bus", private passenger cars, taxicabs, buses, and airport limousines may discharge passengers at either the upper level or lower level, whichever is preferable to the individual passenger. Furthermore, it is stipulated that the "hustle-bus" picks up passengers at the north side ground level entrances of the Air Passenger Terminal Buildings which are primarily for the use of private passenger vehicles. (Stipulations 15 and 21 (b)).
The alleged effect of this statutory treatment is to require vehicles maintained by plaintiff and intervenors to discharge passengers at the lower lobby level instead of the upper level which is specifically designed and intended to receive passengers coming into the airport. As a result, airline passengers who are also customers of Park 'N Fly and Budget-Rent-A-Car are deprived, for the most part, of skycap service for convenient baggage check-in and transportation, as well as being exposed to inclement weather and to heavy traffic not encountered at the upper lobby level.3
Thus, it is alleged that, not only is plaintiff's business operation discriminatorily and arbitrarily relegated to an inconvenient, disadvantageous and often dangerous loading and unloading zone, but also the air passenger's right to the full use of all public air commerce facilities at the Houston Intercontinental Airport is compromised when he contracts for and utilizes plaintiff's or intervenor's services.
This Court is vested with jurisdiction over significant federal questions pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1331. Specifically, plaintiff seeks injunctive relief from future enforcement and a declaratory judgment of unconstitutionality of Municipal Ordinance 70-1951 of the City of Houston, passed pursuant to state statutory authority. Defendants urge the court not to accept jurisdiction, arguing that there is no showing of exceptional circumstances resulting in irreparable loss which would necessitate the imposition of an injunction to afford adequate protection of plaintiff's constitutional rights.
In Spielman Motor Sales Co., Inc. v. Dodge, 295 U.S. 89, 95-96, 55 S.Ct. 678, 680, 79 L.Ed. 1322 (1935) the Supreme Court stated the correct rule as to enjoining the enforcement of a criminal statute:
The general rule is that equity will not interfere to prevent the enforcement of a criminal statute even though...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Executive Town & Country Services, Inc. v. City of Atlanta
...violative of the commerce clause and fourteenth amendment of the United States Constitution. See, e.g., Park'n Fly of Texas, Inc. v. City of Houston, 327 F.Supp. 910 (S.D.Tex.1971). Town & Country also claims that the ordinances are violative of federal antitrust The federal district court ......
-
Sakamoto v. Duty Free Shoppers, Ltd.
...court concluded that Guam is bound by the limitations imposed by the commerce clause).2 Plaintiffs rely on Park'N Fly of Texas, Inc. v. City of Houston, 327 F.Supp. 910 (S.D.Tex.1971). There the court found that a Houston ordinance which permitted only a city "shuttle bus" concessionaire to......
-
Airport Taxi Cab Advisory Comm. v. City of Atlanta
...F.2d 586 (5th Cir.1982) (Unit B); Southerland v. St. Croix Taxicab Ass'n, 315 F.2d 364 (3d Cir.1963); cf. Park 'N Fly of Texas, Inc. v. City of Houston, 327 F.Supp. 910 (S.D.Tex.1971) (courtesy buses for commercial parking lots near the airport are in interstate commerce). In contrast, in s......
-
Continental Bus System, Inc. v. City of Dallas
...without special permission. Southwest Airlines, supra, 371 F.Supp. at 1030. Continental also cites Park `n' Fly of Texas, Inc. v. City of Houston, 327 F. Supp. 910 (S.D.Tex.1971), a case involving ground transportation at the Houston airport. Although interesting, that case does not help Co......