Casino Airport Shuttle, Inc. v. Gulfport-Biloxi Regional Airport Authority

250 F. App'x 21
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedOctober 4, 2007
Docket06-61104
StatusUnpublished

This text of 250 F. App'x 21 (Casino Airport Shuttle, Inc. v. Gulfport-Biloxi Regional Airport Authority) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Casino Airport Shuttle, Inc. v. Gulfport-Biloxi Regional Airport Authority, 250 F. App'x 21 (5th Cir. 2007).

Opinion

PER CURIAM: *

Casino Airport Shuttle, Inc. (“CAS”) appeals the district court’s grant of the defendant’s motion for summary judgment. We AFFIRM.

I. FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS

The Gulfport-Biloxi Regional Airport Authority (“GBRAA”) is a regional airport authority chartered pursuant to Mississippi law. The GBRAA’s Rules, Regulations and Fees were amended on May 2, 2001 to reflect a new contract shuttle classification for ground transportation. The GBRAA developed the classification to alleviate problems with incompetent and overpriced transportation services from the airport. Contract shuttles were required to have an agreement with the destination point to provide service to that property. Some destinations authorized more than one shuttle company to pick up or drop off at the destination, but others authorized a specific shuttle to carry only voucher passengers, while still permitting all to drop off cash customers.

CAS is a business entity which obtained a written permit to provide shuttle transportation from the Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport effective January 3, 2001. In a memorandum posted September 25, *23 2001, the GBRAA stated that CAS could operate to Beau Rivage Resort & Casino (“Beau Rivage”) and Keesler Air Force Base (“Keesler”), among other destinations, pursuant to agreements between CAS and the destinations. However, after receiving an executed contract between Beau Rivage and Hotard Coaches Inc. (“Hotard”) on November 6, 2001, the GBRAA posted a memorandum that Hotard was given all voucher and cash shuttle rides to Beau Rivage. On November 14, 2001, the GBRAA received a letter from Keesler stating that Hotard had obtained a contract to be the only authorized carrier for the facility. The GBRAA posted another memorandum reflecting the change.

Nearly two years later, on July 11, 2003, after receiving correspondence from Beau Rivage and Keesler stating that CAS was authorized to transport customers to those destinations, the GBRAA posted a memorandum reflecting the change. At no time was CAS’s permit to carry passengers to or from the airport revoked or suspended.

CAS filed suit in Mississippi state court on April 23, 2004. The action was removed to the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, Gulfport Division on November 12, 2004. After removal, CAS sought to amend its complaint to add a claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 that its due process rights had been violated. On March 15, 2006, the district court granted the defendants’ motion for summary judgment on the § 1983 claim and remanded the state law claims. On August 6, 2006, the district court denied CAS’s motion for reconsideration.

CAS timely appealed.

II. STANDARD OF REVIEW

In reviewing a grant of summary judgment by the district court, this court examines “the record under the same standards as used by the trial court.” Moore v. Mississippi Valley State Univ., 871 F.2d 545, 548 (5th Cir.1989). “Affirmance of a summary judgment ruling requires that we be convinced, after an independent review of the record, that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” Id. at 548-49 (internal quotations omitted). “The evidence and inferences from the summary judgment record are viewed in the light most favorable to the nonmovant.” Minter v. Great Am. Ins. Co. of New York, 423 F.3d 460, 465 (5th Cir.2005).

III. DISCUSSION

CAS claims that its continued use of two airport shuttle routes was a constitutionally protected property interest and that it was deprived of this property interest without due process of law required by the Fourteenth Amendment. The Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment provides that “[n]o State shall ... deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” U.S. Const. amend. XIV, § 1. To remedy deprivations of federal rights, 42 U.S.C. § 1983 provides that:

Every person who, under color of any statute ... of any State ... subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress____

“The threshold question under § 1983 is whether the complainant has been deprived of a cognizable liberty or property interest.” Jackson v. Reese, 608 F.2d 159, 160 (5th Cir.1979). “This court has held that such property rights must be estab *24 lished by state law.” Hudson v. Texas Racing Comm’n, 455 F.3d 597, 599 (5th Cir.2006).

CAS concedes in its brief that the business permit did not give it “rights to provide airport shuttle services to certain destinations.” However, CAS contends that the September 25, 2001 letter from the GBRAA listing CAS as operating to Beau Rivage and Keesler grants it property rights to operate shuttles to those destinations. CAS argues that under its permit the GBRAA could only revoke its rights under certain conditions which were not met.

CAS unpersuasively cites several cases for the proposition that a license, employment, and benefit may be a property interest. In Barry v. Barchi, the Supreme Court held that a plaintiff had a property interest in a horse trainer’s license because “under New York law, [the] license could have been suspended only upon a satisfactory showing that his horse had been drugged and that he was at least negligent in failing to prevent the drugging.” 443 U.S. 55, 64, 99 S.Ct. 2642, 61 L.Ed.2d 365 (1979). In Bishop v. Wood, the Court affirmed a reading of North Carolina law that a policeman did not have a property interest in his employment protected by the Fourteenth Amendment. 426 U.S. 341, 344-47, 96 S.Ct. 2074, 48 L.Ed.2d 684 (1976). In Perry v. Sindermann, the Court held that a junior college teacher had a property interest in continued employment despite having no written contract with an explicit tenure provision where the teacher “alleged the existence of rules and understandings, promulgated and fostered by state officials, that may justify his legitimate claim of entitlement to continued employment absent sufficient cause.” 408 U.S. 593, 601-03, 92 S.Ct. 2694, 33 L.Ed.2d 570 (1972) (internal quotations omitted). In Board of Regents of State Colleges v. Roth,

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Related

Hudson v. Texas Racing Commission
455 F.3d 597 (Fifth Circuit, 2006)
Board of Regents of State Colleges v. Roth
408 U.S. 564 (Supreme Court, 1972)
Perry v. Sindermann
408 U.S. 593 (Supreme Court, 1972)
Bishop v. Wood
426 U.S. 341 (Supreme Court, 1976)
Barry v. Barchi
443 U.S. 55 (Supreme Court, 1979)
Norman Jackson v. Mamie B. Reese
608 F.2d 159 (Fifth Circuit, 1979)
Rachel Moore v. Mississippi Valley State University
871 F.2d 545 (Fifth Circuit, 1989)
Minter v. Great American Insurance Co. of New York
423 F.3d 460 (Fifth Circuit, 2005)

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Bluebook (online)
250 F. App'x 21, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/casino-airport-shuttle-inc-v-gulfport-biloxi-regional-airport-authority-ca5-2007.