Northeast Airlines, Inc. v. Weiss

113 So. 2d 884, 1959 WL 105180
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedJuly 2, 1959
Docket59-110
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 113 So. 2d 884 (Northeast Airlines, Inc. v. Weiss) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Northeast Airlines, Inc. v. Weiss, 113 So. 2d 884, 1959 WL 105180 (Fla. Ct. App. 1959).

Opinion

113 So.2d 884 (1959)

NORTHEAST AIRLINES, INC., Appellant,
v.
Walter WEISS, as Chairman, and Charles F. Hall, Ralph A. Fossey, Edwin L. Mason, John B. McLeod, Faris N. Cowart, Robert M. Haverfield, Ben McGahey, Joseph A. Boyd, Jr., Alexander S. Gordon and Arthur H. Patten, as members of the Dade County Commission Acting as the Dade County Port Authority, Appellees.

No. 59-110.

District Court of Appeal of Florida. Third District.

July 2, 1959.
Rehearing Denied August 19, 1959.

Walton, Lantaff, Schroeder, Atkins, Carson & Wahl, Miami, for appellant.

James F. Eckhart and Clifford J. Schott, Miami, for Dade County Port Authority, appellee.

*885 CARROLL, CHAS, Judge.

This is an appeal from an interlocutory order entered by the circuit court in Dade County on defendants' motion to dismiss an amended complaint for declaratory decree, injunction and damages.

Appellant, the plaintiff below, is a common carrier (by air) engaged in interstate commerce, and using the airport facilities of the Dade County Port Authority. It sued the Port Authority, alleging that body had charged it rates and fees which were unjust and discriminatory by being greater — in some instances more than six times greater — than the charges made by the Port Authority for items and services to certain of its competitors using like facilities. A decree was sought determining that such charges were unjust and discriminatory, enjoining the continuance thereof by the Port Authority, and granting a refund to the plaintiff of the difference between the charges it had heretofore paid, and that amount that would have been paid if measured by the rates charged plaintiff's competitors.

The pertinent allegations set out in the amended complaint were these:

"4. Approximately 85% of the Miami International Airport, as well as many of the improvements thereon, was acquired by the Port Authority from time to time under various acts of Congress and the regulations adopted in furtherance thereof which require the Authority to operate the Airport without discrimination between users of the same class. Said acts and regulations, while authorizing the imposition of reasonable charges for the use of the services and facilities of the Airport, provide that such charges must be fair, equal and non-discriminatory.
"5. * * * In or about February 1957 the plaintiff protested that the Port Authority was requiring it to pay and collecting from it rates and charges which were substantially greater than rates and charges being collected by the Port Authority from its competitors, National Airlines and Eastern Air Lines. From January 1957 through August 1958 plaintiff paid under protest the landing fees and charges assessed against it by the Port Authority; but although plaintiff has voiced its protest and appealed to the Port Authority on numerous occasions to eliminate the discriminatory charges and taxes, no relief has been granted. Further protest to the defendants would be vain and useless.
"6. From January 1957 through August 1958 the plaintiff has been required to pay and the Port Authority has collected from it over its protest landing fees and passenger taxes aggregating $136,037.90. The discriminatory rates and charges imposed upon plaintiff are levied pursuant to Resolution No. 56 of the Port Authority which was adopted in September 1946. Prior to its adoption the Port Authority had entered into lease agreements with National Airlines and Eastern Air Lines providing for the payment of rates and charges which for utilizing the same facilities with the same number of landings and passengers would produce the sum of approximately $20,139.75. As a result thereof, the rates and charges imposed upon plaintiff for the use of the services and facilities of Miami International Airport from January 1, 1957 through August 1958 were 675% greater than the charges that would have been assessed against its competitors for use of the same services and facilities.
"7. The unconscionable discrimination between plaintiff and its competitors places the plaintiff at an obvious competitive disadvantage and such discrimination is violative of plaintiff's rights under Section 1 of the Declaration of Rights in the Florida Constitution [F.S.A.] and the Fourteenth *886 Amendment of the Constitution of the United States in that such shockingly different rates and charges bear no semblance to equality and uniformity. Said rates and charges are further violative of Article 16, Section 30 of the Florida Constitution [F.S.A.] because they are excessive and unjustly discriminate against plaintiff, and are further violative of Section 8 of Article 1 of the Constitution of the United States because they are not reasonable and uniform and are so excessive as to constitute a burden on interstate commerce.
"8. Northeast Airlines is placed at a further competitive disadvantage at the Miami International Airport by reason of the fact that the company from which it purchases aviation gasoline is required to pay to the Dade County Port Authority five per cent of its gross sales of aviation gasoline, thus resulting in an increased price of one-half cent per gallon to plaintiff. The companies supplying the aforementioned competitors of Northeast are not required to pay said five per cent tax. As a result of such discriminatory and unequal treatment plaintiff during the period January 1957 through August 1958 has been required to pay $30,682.18 more for its aviation fuel at the Miami International Airport than its competitors Eastern and National would have been required to pay had they purchased the same number of gallons from the same distributor supplying plaintiff.
"9. The exaction from plaintiff by defendants of such unequal, discriminatory, unreasonable, unjust and unfair charges, fees and taxes has imposed and will continue to impose on plaintiff an unjust and discriminatory financial burden and loss, and plaintiff has no adequate remedy at law to recover the discriminatory and illegal taxes, fees and charges which it is required to pay each month to the defendants save by a multiplicity of actions."

The chancellor held that the suit was presented prematurely, on the theory that there were administrative remedies prescribed and available which plaintiff must exhaust before resorting to equity. The chancellor's order "requested" the plaintiff to "file its complaint before the appropriate administrative body, namely, the Civil Aeronautics Administration within thirty (30) days from the date hereof," and ruled that in default thereof, "this cause will, upon motion of the defendant showing such fact, after notice to the plaintiff, be dismissed," and the chancellor expressly reserved and continued jurisdiction.

The statutory provisions involved are these:

The Federal Airport Act of 1946, dealing with federal aid in public airport development, by a section now codified as 49 U.S.C.A. § 1110, made provision against such airports imposing unfair, unjust or discriminatory terms upon the users thereof, as follows:

"As a condition precedent to his approval of a project under this chapter, the Administrator shall receive assurances in writing, satisfactory to him, that —
"(1) the airport to which the project relates will be available for public use on fair and reasonable terms and without unjust discrimination;
* * * * * *

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113 So. 2d 884, 1959 WL 105180, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/northeast-airlines-inc-v-weiss-fladistctapp-1959.