In re Island Airlines, Inc.

384 P.2d 536, 47 Haw. 1, 1963 Haw. LEXIS 77
CourtHawaii Supreme Court
DecidedJune 21, 1963
DocketNo. 4339
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 384 P.2d 536 (In re Island Airlines, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Hawaii Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Island Airlines, Inc., 384 P.2d 536, 47 Haw. 1, 1963 Haw. LEXIS 77 (haw 1963).

Opinions

[2]*2OPINION OF THE COURT BY

WIRTZ AND LEWIS, J.I.

This proceeding originated with an application of Island Airlines, Inc., herein referred to as “Island” or “applicant,” which was filed with the Public Utilities Commission on July 11, 1961 and docketed on August 21, 1961,1 seeking approval of rates and capitalization for operation of “a public utility business as a carrier of passengers by air within the State of Hawaii.”

These appeals were taken by intervenors Hawaiian Airlines, Inc. and Aloha Airlines, Inc., herein sometimes referred to as “Hawaiian” and “Aloha,” respectively, from Decision and Order No. 1107 of the Public Utilities Commission, filed August 16,1962, which approved applicant’s rates “for the intrastate transportation of passengers by air between the islands of Oahu, Molokai, Lanai, Maui, Hawaii and Kauai as submitted and amended,” and authorized the proposed capitalization of $250,000. Two matters are involved, first, the jurisdiction of the Commission over the application and, second, the manner in which it exercised its jurisdiction.

On October 2, 1961, the intervenors filed motions chal[3]*3lenging the jurisdiction of the Commission and seeking dismissal of the application. These motions presented the following grounds:

1. As stated by Aloha:2 “The proposed flights of the Applicant would be ‘between places in the same State through the airspace over any place outside thereof’ within the meaning of the Federal Aviation Act of 1958 (72 Stat. 737), 49 USCA Section 1301, Subsections (10) and 21(a), and would thus be in interstate air transportation without first obtaining a certificate of convenience and necessity from said Board contrary to the prohibition contained in said act (Section 1371).”
2. As further stated by Aloha:2 “such proposed flights would undoubtedly involve ‘the carriage by aircraft of persons or property as a common carrier for compensation ... in commerce between, respectively—
(a) a place in any State of the United States, or the District of Columbia, and a place in any other State of the United States, or the District of Columbia; or between places in the same State of the United States through the airspace over any place outside thereof; . . .’ (Section 1301, 21 (a) (Emphasis added.)
contrary to the prohibition above-mentioned contained in said Act.”
3. Hawaiian specifically contends that applicant will be engaged “in commerce” between a place in one state and a place in another state within the meaning of the Federal Aviation Act of 1958, to such extent as to “substantially affect interstate commerce”; and [4]*4that “the proposed carriage is interstate commerce within the meaning of Article One, Section 8 of the Constitution of the United States, and the consequences of regulation of rates therefor by the State of Hawaii will result in an unreasonable burden on interstate commerce.”

By Decision and Order No. 1089 of December 20, 1961 the Commission sustained its jurisdiction and denied the motions of the intervenors to dismiss the application. The intervenors took interlocutory appeals, which were allowed by the Commission at its hearing of December 14, 1961. It was at this hearing that the Commission orally announced its decision on the motions. After allowing the interlocutory appeals it immediately set the application down for further proceedings. When the interlocutory appeals came before this court, we learned that pending the interlocutory appeals further hearings on the application had indeed been held and were nearing completion.3 By order entered on May 4, 1962, after briefing and argument on the status of the interlocutory appeals, we ruled that “even if an interlocutory appeal lies from an order of the Public Utilities Commission, these interlocutory appeals were nonetheless improvidently and improperly .allowed * * *” and ordered the same dismissed. See Smythe v. Takara, 26 Haw. 69, 70; McCandless v. Carter, 18 Haw. 218, 219; Fraser v. Morrison, 39 Haw. 370, 376.

Upon argument of the status of the interlocutory appeals questions from the bench called attention to the incompleteness of the second part of Decision and Order No. 1089, where factual matters were and are involved. Unfortunately Decision and Order No. 1107, the final action of the Commission from which these appeals were taken, failed to supply any findings in this area, which [5]*5generally speaking is the area above designated as the second and third grounds of the intervenors’ motions. We have concluded that a remand is necessary, and will proceed at once to consideration of the situation resultant from the failure to make such findings together with other matters having to do with the manner in which the Commission exercised its jurisdiction.

At a later date a supplemental opinion will be filed on the first ground of the intervenors’ motions. It will suffice for now that we announce our holding that air transportation between the islands involved, referred to herein as “interisland air transportation,” is within the jurisdiction of the Public Utilities Commission;4 that an interisland air carrier does not, merely because of flying interisland, require a federal certificate from the Civil Aeronautics Board5 under section 401 of the Federal Aviation Act of 1958 (49 U.S.C.A., § 1371); that the jurisdiction of the Civil Aeronautics Board over interisland air transportation depends upon the carriage by the carrier of persons or property “in commerce” between a place in one state and a place in another state within the meaning of the Federal Aviation Act of 1958; and that such C.A.B. jurisdiction is not exclusive of P.U.C. jurisdiction over intrastate traffic.

After the conclusion of the hearings before the Public Utilities Commission in this matter, Act 25, S.L. 1962, was approved. Effective upon its approval, May 23, 1962, Section 2, amending Section 104-15, R.L.H. 1955, took effect. As will appear, the final decision and order of August 16,1962, did not comply with the amended section in an important respect.

As amended, Chapter 104, R.L.H. 1955, conferred upon [6]*6the Commission inter alia the following powers:

1. To fix rates, fares, and charges, which shall be “just and reasonable, and such as shall provide a fair return on the property of the utility * * * no such rate, fare, charge * * * shali be abandoned, changed, modified or departed from without the prior approval of the commission.” Sec. 104-15, 1961 Supp., R.L.H. 1955.
2. To fix schedules, which shall be “just and reasonable” and “no such * * * schedule * * * shall be abandoned, changed, modified or departed from without the prior approval of the commission.” Sec. 104-15, as amended, Act 25, S.L. 1962.
3. To regulate “the incurring of indebtedness relating to its public utility business, and its financial transactions * * *.” Sec. 104-15, 1961 Supp.
4. To “do all things in addition which are necessary and in the exercise of such power and jurisdiction * * *.” Sec. 104-15, 1961 Supp.
5.

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Bluebook (online)
384 P.2d 536, 47 Haw. 1, 1963 Haw. LEXIS 77, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-island-airlines-inc-haw-1963.