City & County of Denver v. Continental Air Lines, Inc.

712 F. Supp. 834, 1989 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5363, 1989 WL 50913
CourtDistrict Court, D. Colorado
DecidedMay 8, 1989
DocketCiv. A. 88-M-1391
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 712 F. Supp. 834 (City & County of Denver v. Continental Air Lines, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Colorado primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
City & County of Denver v. Continental Air Lines, Inc., 712 F. Supp. 834, 1989 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5363, 1989 WL 50913 (D. Colo. 1989).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

MATSCH, District Judge.

The plaintiff, the City and County of Denver (Denver), is the owner and operator of Stapleton International Airport (Staple-ton) in Denver, Colorado. The defendants, Continental Air Lines, Inc. (Continental) and United Air Lines, Inc. (United), are commercial airlines using Stapleton for air commerce pursuant to lease agreements entered into in 1968 and set to expire in 1993. These lease agreements permit United and Continental (the airlines) to land and take off from Stapleton’s airfield and to use certain concourse and terminal space for their operations. The leases provide that Denver can determine the rentals, fees and charges for the airlines’ use of Staple-ton provided that the amounts are “reasonable in relation to the costs of providing, operating and maintaining the particular service or facility.”

For many years Denver has determined those costs by dividing Stapleton into three primary cost centers: (1) the terminal area, composed of the main terminal and concourses; (2) the field area, consisting primarily of runways and taxiways, and (3) the public area, including parking lots and ground transportation facilities. Under this cost accounting method, Denver has assigned costs of the terminal area in determining airline terminal rental rates and has allocated costs attributable to the field area in charging landing fees to the airlines.

Denver also obtains income at Stapleton from non-airline tenants. Non-airline revenues, known as “concession revenues,” are derived from contracts and leases with the operators of restaurants, gift shops, rental car outlets, and parking lots in the public area and terminal area at Stapleton. These concession revenues exceed the costs attributed by Denver for the provision and use of the facilities creating a surplus that has accumulated in a special fund, the Sta-pleton Capital Improvement and Replacement Fund (Capital Fund). Historically the Capital Fund has been used for capital expenditures and extraordinary maintenance costs at Stapleton.

Denver has decided to replace Stapleton with an entirely new airport to be constructed on a different site. To help finance the replacement airport, Denver is drawing on the Capital Fund. In addition, Denver has also included certain land development and financing costs for the proposed replacement airport in the terminal rental rates and landing fees currently *836 charged to the airlines. By way of example, on January 1, 1989 Denver imposed a 96% increase in Continental’s landing fees over and above the 1988 charges. A large part of that increase is intended for the payment of the debt service charges on bonds issued to purchase the land site for the replacement airport.

Thus, Denver plans to replace Stapleton with a new airport and finance it, in part, from charges to concessionaires and airlines using Stapleton. Denver brought this civil action seeking a declaratory judgment that this financing plan does not violate the prohibitions of the Federal Anti-Head Tax Act, 49 U.S.C.App. § 1513. The airlines have counterclaimed asserting that the financing plan is prohibited by that federal statute and is a breach of the existing lease agreements. Continental also claims that Denver has violated the United States Constitution. Cross-claims for summary judgment have been filed and because of the public importance of the dispute, this court has expedited consideration of two questions included among the issues raised by the pleadings and these motions.

1. Does the Federal Anti-Head Tax Act prohibit Denver from using the Capital Fund for costs connected with the proposed new airport?

2. Does the Federal Anti-Head Tax Act prohibit Denver from recovering costs connected with the proposed new airport in the current rental rates, fees and charges assessed to the defendant airlines at Stapleton?

After examining the plain language of the Anti-Head Tax Act as well as its legislative history and the relevant case law, this court concludes that Denver is not prohibited from using the Capital Fund for costs connected with the new airport, and that Denver is prohibited from recovering costs connected with the proposed new airport in the current rental rates, fees and charges assessed to the defendant airlines at Sta-pleton.

In answering these questions, the parties have agreed that this court should assume that the airlines’ ticket prices will reflect the increases in the rates, rentals, fees and charges attributable to Denver’s effort to finance the proposed new airport. Therefore, the airlines represent their passengers in this challenge to these charges collected from persons traveling in air commerce. The first question is ripe for determination in this action, even though none of the concessionaires is a party, because the airlines challenge Denver’s cost accounting methodology by claiming that all costs and revenues from Stapleton must be considered together in determining reasonable costs for the airlines’ use of the airport. Thus, the airlines contend that the concessionaire revenues should not be considered separately and that all expenditures from the Capital Fund must be for the benefit of Stapleton.

The Anti-Head Tax Act, found at 49 U.S.C.App. § 1513, provides, in pertinent part:

(a) Prohibition; ....
No State (or political subdivision thereof ...) shall levy or collect a tax, fee, head charge, or other charge, directly or indirectly, on persons traveling in air commerce or on the carriage of persons traveling in air commerce or on the sale of air transportation or on the gross receipts derived therefrom; ...
(b) Permissible State taxes and fees.
[Njothing in this section shall prohibit a State (or political subdivision thereof ...) owning or operating an airport from levying or collecting reasonable rental charges, landing fees, and other service charges from aircraft operators for the use of airport facilities.

In any case involving the interpretation of a statute, the court’s analysis must always begin with the language of the statute itself. Landreth Timber Co. v. Landreth, 471 U.S. 681, 105 S.Ct. 2297, 85 L.Ed.2d 692 (1985). Section (a) is a general prohibition of taxes, fees, and charges affecting persons traveling in air commerce, and section (b) grants permission for airport owners to impose reasonable charges for the use of the airport facilities they provide.

Read literally, the Anti-Head Tax Act has no application to the concession reve *837 nues at Stapleton. The statute prohibits charges to persons traveling or being carried in “air commerce” and on the sale of “air transportation.” “Air commerce” is defined as “interstate, overseas, or foreign air commerce or the transportation of mail by aircraft or any operation or navigation of aircraft within the limits of any Federal airway or any operation or navigation of aircraft which directly affects, or which may endanger safety in, interstate, overseas, or foreign air commerce.” 49 U.S.C. App. § 1301(4) (emphasis added).

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
712 F. Supp. 834, 1989 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5363, 1989 WL 50913, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/city-county-of-denver-v-continental-air-lines-inc-cod-1989.