All American Bus Lines, Inc. v. Hawkins

188 S.W.2d 992
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 20, 1945
DocketNo. 2514.
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 188 S.W.2d 992 (All American Bus Lines, Inc. v. Hawkins) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
All American Bus Lines, Inc. v. Hawkins, 188 S.W.2d 992 (Tex. Ct. App. 1945).

Opinion

LESLIE, Chief Justice.

Plaintiff, L. D. Hawkins, for himself and citizens similarly situated, instituted this suit against the All American Bus Lines, Inc., seeking from the trial court (District Court of Stephens County) a mandatory injunction requiring said Bus Lines to transport him and others from station to station in Texas upon their payment of the required transportation charges. The Railroad Commission of Texas intervened, asserting that such right of intrastate transportation of passengers must be obtained first from that body and that the District Court of Stephens County was without authority or jurisdiction to grant the relief sought by plaintiffs. Upon a trial the relief sought was granted and the Railroad Commission, as well as the Bus Lines, Inc., appeal, challenging the authority of the District Court of Stephens County to grant any such relief.

Appellee Hawkins et al. seek to uphold judgment of the trial court on the theory that the authority to control and regulate such transportation of passengers, as attempted to be vested by the statute in the Railroad Commission of Texas and as attempted to be exercised by that agency, amounts to an unlawful discrimination by the Bus Company against intrastate passengers (himself and others), and, therefore, constitutes a'violation of the Bill of Rights, wherein that instrument provides: “All free men, when they form a social compact, have equal rights.” That any such regulation by which the plaintiffs were and are to be rejected as such passengers is void. Further, that the provision of the Bill of Rights that “Monopolies are contrary to the genius of a free government, and shall never be allowed,” inhibits such enforced discrimination by the Bus Lines against him and others applying for intrastate transportation, as reflected by the facts in the instant case.

By a third counter point appellee asserts that since the Bus Lines, Inc., is already lawfully operating as a common carrier of interstate passengers over the Texas highways and no statute specifically confers on the Commission any power to determine who may and who may not ride on buses of said carrier, any order out of the Commission purporting to allocate local passenger traffic on the highways of Texas to the exclusion of the Defendant Bus Lines would be null and void, and “it is immaterial that the intervener has not granted defendant a certificate to transport passengers” (intrastate.)

By appellee’s fourth counter point he asserts “The District Courts of Travis County, Texas, do not have exclusive original jurisdiction of this cause.”

In brief, appellee Hawkins- states in his brief the theory of this litigation in this language: “This case proceeds, of course, upon the theory that the plaintiff could ignore the Railroad Commission of Texas.”

We have carefully read appellee’s excellent brief, the authorities cited and considered the interesting theories advanced for the affirmance of the judgment. After due consideration of the same, we do not believe that the propositions urged by ap-pellees have escaped consideration or been passed unnoticed in the legislative enactments establishing the Railroad Commission and fixing its authority to regulate and *994 control intrastate transportation of passengers, etc. Evidently the Railroad Commission and the authority bestowed upon it in such matters have been established and approved in the light of such fundamental constitutional and statutory rules, as evidenced by the decisions, State and Federal. Hence, with due regard to appellee’s contentions, and in the light of the facts presented by this case, we are of the view that the rights of the litigants herein should be determined under the rules of law and authorities presented to be cited and discussed. To that end a fuller and more specific statement of the nature and results of this litigation follows.

Appellant Bus Lines is lawfully operating its lines of transportation from New York City to Los Angeles, California, as a public carrier of passengers pursuant to authority granted it by the Interstate Commerce Commission of the United States.

Said Bus Lines does an intrastate passenger business and an interstate passenger business in and through certain states along its route other than the State of Texas. In Texas it conducts strictly an interstate transportation business, since it has no permit or certificate of convenience and necessity to carry intrastate passengers in Texas.

Appellant’s busses enter Texas from Oklahoma at a point near Gainesville, and its route proceeds through Dallas, Fort Worth, Breckenridge (plaintiff’s home town), Abilene, Midland and El Paso, leaving the State of-Texas west of El Paso and entering New Mexico near the town of Anthony.

In 1942 the Railroad Commission of Texas refused to grant said Bus Lines a permit to carry intrastate passengers and no appeal was prosecuted therefrom.

In 1944 said Bus Lines filed application with the Railroad Commission for a permit of convenience and necessity to engage in intrastate passenger business and said application is still pending before that body, which is engaged in taking a volumn of evidence pertaining thereto, and the Commission has not made any final order on the same.

The agreement further stipulates that the appellant Bus Lines did not have any permit to carry intrastate passengers, and that it does not do so for that reason.

In its brief the appellant (American Bus Lines) states:

“This appellant recognizes .the authority of the Railroad Commission of Texas to receive and consider, and to deny or allow, an application for a certificate to transact intrastate passenger transportation by All American Bus Lines, Inc. within the state of Texas.
“The single point in this case is whether or not the Railroad Commission of Texas has statutory authority to allow or prevent the transportation of intrastate passengers for hire by All American Bus Lines, Inc. over the highways of this state along .the route of Appellant’s present, and admittedly, lawful interstate operation.
“This appellant takes the position that the Railroad Commission of Texas has such authority, given by statute; and from the order of the District Court (of Stephens County) in this case directing this appellant to transport for hire in intrastate movement, the plaintiff below and others similarly situated, All American Bus Lines, Inc. makes this appeal.”

By the following single point the Bus Lines attacks said judgment: “The District Court of Stephens County has no authority to issue a writ of mandamus requiring All American Bus Lines, Inc. to accept for transportation and to transport the Plaintiff, L. D. Hawkins, and all persons similarly situated, as passengers in intrastate transportation within the State of Texas, upon their request and the payment of proper fare, because the authority to make such an order is placed exclusively in the Railroad Commission of Texas by that statutory enactment of the Legislature known as Article 911a of the Revised Civil Statutes of Texas.”

By five points the Railroad Commission in substance makes the same contention. The first four are presented .together.

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Bluebook (online)
188 S.W.2d 992, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/all-american-bus-lines-inc-v-hawkins-texapp-1945.