Bay Cities Transit Co. v. City of Los Angeles

108 P.2d 435, 16 Cal. 2d 772, 1940 Cal. LEXIS 357
CourtCalifornia Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 23, 1940
DocketL. A. No. 17195
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 108 P.2d 435 (Bay Cities Transit Co. v. City of Los Angeles) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bay Cities Transit Co. v. City of Los Angeles, 108 P.2d 435, 16 Cal. 2d 772, 1940 Cal. LEXIS 357 (Cal. 1940).

Opinion

THE COURT.

The question for determination in this case is controlled by our decision this day filed in the case of Los Angeles Railway Corporation v. City of Los Angeles, L. A. No. 17460, post, p. 779 [108 Pac. (2d) 430]. The opinion of the District Court of Appeal, Second District, Division Two, to which the appeal herein was originally taken, contains a statement of the facts and a determination of the controversy in conformity with the views of this court expressed in its opinion in Los Angeles Railway Corporation v. City of Los Angeles, supra. We, therefore, adopt the per curiam opinion of the District Court of Appeal as the opinion of this court. It is as follows:

Plaintiff commenced this action to prevent the board of public utilities and transportation of the city of Los Angeles from interfering with the operation of plaintiff’s bus line on the speedway in the Venice district of said city. Plaintiff contends that ordinance No. 58198, under the terms of which the city claims the right to divert the plaintiff’s buses from the speedway, is ineffective for this purpose, since the subject matter of the ordinance is under the control of the railroad commission of the State of California. A general demurrer to the petition was sustained and, plaintiff declining to amend, a judgment of dismissal was entered from which this appeal is prosecuted.

Plaintiff operates a passenger bus line along a route lying partially within the city of Los Angeles and partially within the city of Santa Monica. In the year 1935 upon plaintiff’s application for a certificate of public convenience and necessity, the railroad commission of the State of California made an order designating the route to be followed by plaintiff [774]*774in operating such bus line and restricting operations to that route only. In compliance with the requirements of Ordinance No. 58198 of the city of Los Angeles, plaintiff applied for and obtained a permit from the board of public utilities and transportation of such city to operate its bus line over those portions of the route designated by the railroad commission which were situated within the corporate limits of the city of Los Angeles. The only portion of such operation with which we are here concerned is the portion lying within the Venice district of the city of Los Angeles. Commencing in May, 1938, a series of hearings were held by the board of public utilities and transportation for the purpose of determining the convenience and necessity of the operation of plaintiff’s buses over that portion of the designated route lying within the Venice district. As a result of these hearings the board found that the operation of buses over the portion of the designated route in question was extremely hazardous, and concluded that the portion of the operation lying within the Venice district should be rerouted in the interests of safety. Accordingly the board made its order that plaintiff’s permit “be canceled, effective at 12:01 A. M., March 5, 1939, and the Company be notified that this Board will, upon receipt of proper application, grant a new permit for the operation of said bus line over the Speedway from the Los Angeles-Santa Monica City Boundary to Navy Street”, one-half of the traffic to be over the old route and the other half over a newly designated route.

Ordinance No. 58198 of the city of Los Angeles grants to the board of public utilities and transportation the power to issue permits for the operation of motor buses upon the public streets of the city, whether the operation is wholly or partly within the city limits, if it be found that public convenience and necessity so require. The ordinance further authorizes the board to revoke any license or permit granted by it. Section 50% of the Public Utilities Act (Act 6386, Leering’s Gen. Laws, 1937) provides that no passenger stage corporation shall operate its stages over any public highway without first obtaining from the railroad commission a certificate of public convenience and necessity. By section 2% of the Public Utilities Act a “passenger stage corporation” is defined as one which operates passenger stages over any public highway in this state between fixed termini or over a regular route which is not exclusively within the limits of a [775]*775single incorporated city. The conflict between the legislative enactment and the ordinance, in so far as the latter purports to regulate operations only partly within the city limits, is at once apparent. We are called upon to determine whether the state or the city has the paramount authority and power to designate the route to be followed by a passenger stage corporation which operates motor buses between fixed termini or over a regular route not exclusively within the corporate limits of such city.

Section 50% of the Public Utilities Act provides: “ . . . The railroad commission, in the exercise of the jurisdiction conferred upon it by the Constitution of this state and by this act, shall have power and authority to grant certificates of public convenience and necessity and make decisions and orders and to prescribe rules and regulations affecting passenger stage corporations, notwithstanding the provisions of any ordinance or permit of any incorporated city . . . and in case of conflict betiveen any such order, rule or regulation, and any such ordinance or permit, the certificate, decision, order, rule or regulation of the railroad commission shall in each instance prevail.” It is manifest that in enacting section 50% it was the intention of the legislature to vest in the railroad commission exclusive jurisdiction in the matter of the regulation of passenger stage corporations not operating wholly within the corporate limits of a single city. The power of the legislature to grant to the railroad commission such exclusive jurisdiction appears to be settled by that portion of section 23, article XII of the state Constitution, which provides: “ . . . The railroad commission shall have and exercise such power and jurisdiction to supervise and regulate public utilities in the state of California, and to fix the rates to be charged .for commodities furnished, or services rendered by public utilities as shall be conferred upon it by the legislature, and the right of the legislature to confer powers upon the railroad commission respecting public utilities is hereby declared to be plenary and to be unlimited by any provision of this Constitution. From and after the passage by the legislature of laws conferring powers upon the railroad commission respecting public utilities, all powers respecting such public utilities vested in boards of supervisors, or municipal councils, or other governing bodies of the several counties, cities and counties, cities and towns, in this state, or in any commission created by law and existing [776]*776at the time of the passage of such laws, shall cease so far as such powers shall conflict with the powers so conferred upon the railroad commission ...”

On behalf of defendants it is contended, however, that by virtue of other provisions of this same section of the Constitution, added by the amendments of 1911 and 1914, the asserted vested right of the city to enact and enforce the ordinance in question in the manner in which it is sought to be enforced is reserved to the city to the exclusion of any legislative control. These provisions of the amendments to section 23 are: “ . . .

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Bluebook (online)
108 P.2d 435, 16 Cal. 2d 772, 1940 Cal. LEXIS 357, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bay-cities-transit-co-v-city-of-los-angeles-cal-1940.