Roberts v. Carter

76 So. 2d 789, 1954 Fla. LEXIS 1938
Supreme Court of Florida·Decided December 3, 1954·Published·Cited by 3 cases

Opinion

MATHEWS, Justice.

This is a petition for writ of certiorari to review an order of the Florida Railroad and Public Utilities Commission denying the application of the petitioner for a certificate of public convenience and necessity to operate an auto transportation company to and from the Tampa International Airport in Hillsborough County along a route from the north center line of Main Street in Largo, embracing the territory of Largo, Belle-air, Clearwater, Dunedin, Safety Harbor, Oldsmar, Tarpon Springs, and the non-municipal territory lying and being between the named municipalities. After the appointment of an examiner and the taking of testimony and after the examiner made his report and recommendations to respondents, a public hearing was held. Thereafter the respondents made an order which, among other things, contained the following:

“Applicant seeks authority to conduct a seven-passenger limousine service for the transportation of passengers to and from certain points in North Pinellas County and Tampa International Airport, formerly known as Drew Field, and proposed to meet all flights coming to said airport.
* * * * * *
“Under the exemptions contained in Section 323.29, Florida Statutes, operations conducted between cities and towns whose boundaries adjoin are exempt from the jurisdiction of this Commission. It appears that the corporate limits of Clearwater and Tampa are contiguous, and that their boundaries adjoin at or near the center of Tampa Bay. It follows, therefore, that the proposed operation by applicant be[790] tween Clearwater and Tampa International Airport is exempt from the jurisdiction of this Commission. Clear-water is also the largest town in the area which applicant proposes to service, and it does not appear that there is sufficient public demand in the other towns in North Pinellas County to support the service which applicant proposes to furnish.
“After due consideration of the testimony submitted in this application, it appears that applicant has failed to show public convenience and necessity which would justify the granting of this application and has failed to show that applicant would receive sufficient patronage to make his operation a profitable business venture.”

It appears from said order that it was based upon mixed questions of law and evidence. The respondents first determined that the proposed operation of the petitioner was exempt from the jurisdiction of the Commission because the boundaries between Clearwater and the City of Tampa joined for a short distance and that there was not sufficient business from the other territory going to or from Tampa to justify the operation or to show that public convenience and necessity for such operation existed. It appears that in evaluating the testimony the respondents considered the application as a means of transportation to and from Tampa by the local citizens of the communities affected. This was not simply an application for a certificate to render service to and from Tampa of persons living in the communities affected, but it was an application for a certificate to render a service to and from an airport. No doubt the determination of the Commission that public convenience and necessity had not been made to appear was based upon its conclusion that it had no jurisdiction in the first place and it made no distinction between transportation to serve the convenience and necessity of local people and that of people who desired to use airplanes as a means or method of transportation.

With reference to air travel, one of the most difficult problems confronting those who wish to use air transportation is ground transportation. The airlines’ primary duty is performed when they deliver passengers from airport to airport, but the problem of those using air transportation is not solved unless the ground transportation is sufficient and adequate to get them to and from airports. It is a matter of common knowledge that those who use air transportation do so because it is a speedy and convenient method of transportation. They wish to get from place to place by a speedy method.

In a case of this kind it is rather difficult to get the direct testimony of those using the air service. After having made the trip they could not wait in Clearwater or Tampa for the convenience of an examiner to take their testimony as to the loss of time by reason of inadequate or inefficient ground transportation. Passengers on airlines come and go to and from the four corners of the country and it is too much to expect them to remain in Tampa or Clearwater to give their testimony with reference to inconveniences of the ground transportation. In the absence of such testimony statistics and records of those whose business it is to keep such statistics and records should be available.

One witness by the name of Keppie testified that he conducted a travel agency in the City of Clearwater and that there was no limousine service from the area to the Tampa airport. He had conducted this travel agency since 1923 and was a ticket agent for three airlines operating into the Tampa airport, to-wit, National Airlines, Eastern Airlines and Trans-Canada Airlines. His average ticket sales for passenger plane tickets from the area involved in the application for use of airplanes at the Tampa International Airport was approximately 600 per month.

Another witness, who lived in Safety 'Harbor, testified that he was engaged in real estate, hotel, and owner and operator of apartment houses and has served -as Mayor for 16 years. He was acquainted with the needs of his community as it related to airplane passenger traffic. A great number of people from New York, Chicago and other [791] points came to his territory through the airport because of health springs and sanitariums. There was no limousine service from his community to the airport in Tampa and the same was badly needed.

One Golden, a Manager of National Airlines at the Tampa International Airport, testified that several hundred passengers per year came over his lines using the airport for points in the area involved in the application, but there was no limousine service for these passengers and that such service was badly needed.

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Roberts v. Carter, 76 So. 2d 789, 1954 Fla. LEXIS 1938 (Fla. 1954).

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In re Yellow Cab Co. of St. Petersburg, Inc.
14 Fla. Supp. 144 (Florida Public Service Commission, 1959)