People's Rapid Transit Co. v. Atl. City

• Decision Date: 04 February 1929
• Docket Number: No. 232.,232.
• Citation: 144 A. 630
• Parties: PEOPLE'S RAPID TRANSIT CO. et al. v. ATLANTIC CITY.
• Court: New Jersey Supreme Court

144 A. 630

PEOPLE'S RAPID TRANSIT CO. et al.

v. ATLANTIC CITY.

No. 232.

Supreme Court of New Jersey.

Feb. 4, 1929.

Certiorari by the People's Rapid Transit Company and others to review an ordinance of the city of Atlantic City regulating the operation of autobusses therein. Ordinance sustained.

Argued May term, 1928, before MINTURN, BLACK, and CAMPBELL, JJ.

Cole & Cole and S. Paul Ridgway, all of Atlantic City, for prosecutors.

Joseph B. Perskie, of Atlantic City, for respondent.

MINTURN, J. The facts in the case brought up by this writ are as follows:

Atlantic avenue, in the city of Atlantic City, is one of the main thoroughfares, if not the main thoroughfare, of that municipality, and extends the full length of the city. Pacific avenue parallels Atlantic avenue from Main to Albany avenues; and Oriental avenue extends from the Boardwalk to New Jersey avenue parallel with Atlantic avenue. The main thoroughfare running parallel with Atlantic avenue along the ocean front of the city, is Pacific avenue.

The distance between Atlantic avenue and the Boardwalk is between 750 and 800 feet, and that avenue is a street about 80 feet in width; Pacific avenue being about 35 feet in width.

All the streets in the city leading to the Boardwalk are what are known as dead-end streets. There are 48 streets running across Atlantic avenue from Main to Jackson avenue, and the inhibition contained in the ordinance covers all streets so crossing Atlantic avenue, with the exception of Main and New Hampshire avenues.

During the summer and holiday seasons as many as 15,000 additional automobiles use the streets.

On Virginia avenue two of the prosecutors operate. There is a double trolley track on the street, extending its full length, upon which track is operated trolley cars.

Three of the prosecutors in this case own approximately 100 of the busses, which carry about 30,000 passengers, and are about 8 feet wide, 29 feet long, and weigh approximately 16,000 pounds.

Under these conditions the board of commissioners of the city of Atlantic City passed an ordinance, which was approved on the 9th of February, 1928, entitled "An ordinance regulating the operation of autobusses within the city of Atlantic City, providing for operating terminals, and the parking of said autobusses, regulating and prohibiting the use of certain streets in said city by said autobusses and providing penalties for the violation thereof."

Section 1 of the ordinance provides that the term or designation "autobusses" as used in the ordinance is declared to mean and include one or more automobiles, or one or more other vehicles propelled by motor power, with a seating capacity of more than seven passengers, and engaged in carrying passengers for hire and pay, to and from and within the city of Atlantic City.

The second section provides that nothing contained in the ordinance should be construed to include taxicabs, hotel busses, or busses employed solely in transporting school children and school teachers to and from the public schools in said city, or such omnibus and stage coaches and other vehicles commonly called jitneys, as operate solely within the limits of said city, or autobusses operated wholly within the city limits of the city by virtue of a franchise from said city.

Section 3 provides that it shall be unlawful for any person operating autobusses as therein defined to receive or discharge passengers on any street or highway in the city.

The fourth section provides that it shall be unlawful for any person to park or operate any autobus as therein defined in the city of Atlantic City, unless such person shall first procure, provide, and maintain a terminal, on private land, on which terminal only such person shall park, or shall accept and discharge any person or persons who may offer themselves for transportation in such autobusses.

Section 3 provides that it shall be unlawful for any autobus as therein defined to operate on or across Atlantic avenue, or to operate on any streets, avenues, boulevards, public places, or portions thereof, lying between Atlantic avenue and the Boardwalk, and between Vermont and Jackson avenues.

Section 6 provides that it shall be unlawful to operate at any time within the said city any autobus, as therein defined, carrying passengers in excess of the rated seating capacity of the bus.

Section 7 provides that the word "person" is thereby declared to mean and include persons, firms, associations, copartnerships, and corporations, and the employees, agents, and servants of such persons, firms, associations, or copartnerships, and the officers, employees, agents, and servants of such corporations.

Section 8 provides that the ordinance is declared to be necessary in the interest of the public safety and health of the community and to relieve congestion of traffic on Atlantic avenue, and on streets lying between Atlantic avenue and the Boardwalk, and between Vermont and Jackson avenues, to lessen the fire hazard occasioned by the obstruction due to autobusses on said avenue and said streets, and to provide for certain necessary police regulation of such busses.

Section 9 provides that an person, firm, association, copartnership, or corporation violating any of the provisions of the ordinance shall, upon conviction thereof, pay a fine not exceeding $50 for the first offense, and a fine not exceeding $100 for each and every offense thereafter, and, upon default in payment of any first or subsequent fine therein provided, such offender shall be imprisoned in the city or county jail for a period not exceeding 30 days.

Section 10 provides that, if for any reason any section or part of any section, or any provision of this ordinance shall be questioned in any court, and shall be held by any court to be unconstitutional or invalid, the same shall not be held to affect any other section or any part of any other section or provisions of the ordinance.

By section 11 all ordinances or parts of ordinances inconsistent therewith are thereby repealed to the extent of such inconsistency.

The twelfth section provides for the immediate taking effect of the ordinance.

There are four prosecutors to the writ, who seek the judgment of the court touching the validity of the ordinance under review, in so far as it provides for operating terminals, and the parking of autobusses, and regulating and prohibiting the use of certain streets in said city by said autobusses, and providing penalties for the violation thereof.

The prosecutors are engaged in interstate commerce, transporting passengers to and from Atlantic City, and to and from points outside of the state of New Jersey. Each has a terminal in Atlantic City, and none of them takes on passengers in New Jersey except at its terminal in Atlantic City, nor does any of them discharge any...