Courtesy Cab Co. v. Johnson

103 N.W.2d 17, 10 Wis. 2d 426, 1960 Wisc. LEXIS 389
CourtWisconsin Supreme Court
DecidedMay 3, 1960
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 103 N.W.2d 17 (Courtesy Cab Co. v. Johnson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wisconsin Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Courtesy Cab Co. v. Johnson, 103 N.W.2d 17, 10 Wis. 2d 426, 1960 Wisc. LEXIS 389 (Wis. 1960).

Opinions

Dieterich, J.

Defendant, Howard Johnson, is the chief of police of the city of Milwaukee. Defendant, Walter Mat-tison, is the city attorney of said city. Plaintiff, Courtesy Cab Company, is a Wisconsin corporation, operating taxicabs, and has a franchise from the village of Greendale and the village of Hales Corners. Plaintiff, West Allis Taxi Corporation, is a Wisconsin corporation, in such business, and has [429]*429a franchise from the city of West Allis and the city of Wauwatosa.

The county of Milwaukee owns and operates General Mitchell Field for airport transportation, landing of commercial and private planes, and the departing thereof. The Milwaukee county board of supervisors enacted an ordinance known as sec. 407, sub. 8 of the general ordinances of said county, relating to the operating of taxicabs and limousines at General Mitchell Field. Under that ordinance, for the right and privilege of operating taxicabs on the premises of said airport, the taxicab operators must pay 25 cents for each cab leaving the airport with one or more passengers, and the operators must abide by the rules and regulations pertaining to the conduct of taxicab operators on the airport premises as may be prescribed from time to time by the airport manager.

The plaintiffs have been authorized and permitted to operate taxicabs on the premises of General Mitchell Field by the airport manager and have been operating their taxicabs into the field to carry for hire passengers who alight from airplanes onto said field, and who desire transportation into the city of Milwaukee or elsewhere.

Plaintiffs’ taxicabs take passengers from the airport to destinations in the city of Milwaukee; and sometimes operate from the field to the point of destination in the city of Milwaukee through other cities along the route.

Defendants, respectively, have threatened to make arrests and issue warrants of actions for the recovery of a forfeiture against plaintiffs’ cab drivers, who leave the General Mitchell Field terminal building with passengers under all circumstances regardless of whether or not they originate from the airport and travel through other municipalities to the ultimate destination for discharge of passengers in the city of Milwaukee.

[430]*430Plaintiff Courtesy Cab Company’s cab drivers have carried passengers from the field into the city of Milwaukee, and have been arrested and brought into the district court of Milwaukee county, charged with a violation of sec. 100-54, Milwaukee Code of Ordinances; and defendants have threatened to make arrests of cab drivers for transporting passengers from General Mitchell Field into the city of Milwaukee.

General Mitchell Field is owned by Milwaukee county. General Mitchell Field terminal building at which passengers for and from commercial and private airplanes arrive and leave, is located 1,800 feet east of Howell avenue, a street in the city of Milwaukee extending in a northerly and southerly direction and within the city of Milwaukee. Passengers, under the rules and regulations of the airport, can only take or leave taxicabs, or any other vehicle of transport at that building.

The plaintiffs contend and allege in their complaint that under the circumstances they have no adequate remedy at law, and will suffer irreparable damage unless injunctional relief is granted to them.

Sec. 100-54, Milwaukee Code of Ordinances, provides as follows:

“Permit required; number permitted. No vehicle shall ply upon the streets of the city without first obtaining a permit from the common council. Such vehicle shall have clearly marked on the right and left side of said vehicle the words, ‘Licensed by city of Milwaukee,’ as well as the permit number and the name of the owner of the vehicle or the trade name under which the vehicle is operated. Except as hereinafter provided the common council shall have power to issue or refuse any such permit as the public welfare, convenience, or necessity may require, and shall refuse to issue it when it shall find that transportation facilities already available are adequate to meet the public need. Such available transportation facilities shall be considered adequate to meet the public need when there is one taxicab operating in the city of Milwaukee for each of 1,175 of its population. The popula[431]*431tion shall be determined as of the last state or United States census and shall, for the purpose of making proper adjustments under this ordinance, be increased one per cent in 1945, and one per cent each year thereafter until the taking of the next state or United States census. From and after the enactment hereof, not less than 41 taxicab permits shall be issued to applicants, otherwise qualified, and who reside within the city of Milwaukee, and have resided within said city of Milwaukee for two years prior to the filing of said application, and who have been honorably discharged from service in the armed forces of the United States, during World Wars I or II, if such honorably discharged veteran applicant shall have filed an application with the city clerk for such permit. Any one or more of such ‘veteran’ permits may be issued jointly to such veteran and to an organization of such veterans formed for taxicab operational purposes; provided, that the charter or articles of association of such an organization have first been filed with the city clerk and the same have been approved by the city attorney. The joint permit shall terminate automatically as to both joint per-mittees upon the death of the individual joint permittee.”

Under sec. 100-62 of the ordinances, permits granted may be revoked or suspended at any time for such cause as may be deemed to be sufficient by the common council.

Under sec. 100 — 74 of the ordinances, a driver’s license may be revoked at any time by the common council for cause.

Sec. 100-84 of the ordinances provides for penalties: Any owner or driver of a vehicle violating any provisions of ch. 100, Milwaukee Code of Ordinances, shall upon conviction be punished by a fine of from $10 to $100, or in default of payment, by to ninety days’ imprisonment in the house of correction; and in addition to the fine or imprisonment, any permit or license shall be subject to revocation upon conviction for any violation of any provisions of said ch. 100.

All acts of legislative bodies are presumed to be constitutional unless established otherwise by a competent tribunal. The party attacking an ordinance has the burden of overcoming the presumption of constitutionality and showing [432]*432that the ordinance is unconstitutional. If there are any reasons which can fairly have weight, the reasons for a given ordinance are for the legislative body and not for the courts. If there is any reasonable basis on which the legislative body may constitutionally rest a statute, the court must sustain it. State ex rel. Broughton v. Zimmerman (1952), 261 Wis. 398, 411, 52 N. W. (2d) 903; State v. Stehlek (1953), 262 Wis. 642, 645, 56 N. W. (2d) 514; and Borden Co. v. McDowell (1959), 8 Wis. (2d) 246, 99 N. W. (2d) 146.

It is an elementary principle of law in this state that courts will not interfere with the exercise of police power by a municipality unless the exercise of such police power is clearly illegal.

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Courtesy Cab Co. v. Johnson
103 N.W.2d 17 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1960)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
103 N.W.2d 17, 10 Wis. 2d 426, 1960 Wisc. LEXIS 389, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/courtesy-cab-co-v-johnson-wis-1960.