Rosenfeld v. Port Authority of New York & New Jersey

108 F. Supp. 2d 156, 42 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. 2d (West) 269, 2000 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10939, 2000 WL 1099883
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. New York
DecidedJuly 31, 2000
DocketNo. 98 CIV. 7757(ERK)
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 108 F. Supp. 2d 156 (Rosenfeld v. Port Authority of New York & New Jersey) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Rosenfeld v. Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, 108 F. Supp. 2d 156, 42 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. 2d (West) 269, 2000 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10939, 2000 WL 1099883 (E.D.N.Y. 2000).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM & ORDER

KORMAN, Chief Judge.

The issue presented by this case is whether the Constitution of the United States requires that interest earned on funds deposited by customers in the highway, bridge and tunnel toll collection system known as E-ZPass be paid to E-[158]*158ZPass customers. The E-ZPass system was developed for use by several toll authorities in the northeast region of the United States in order to ease traffic backups at highway, bridge and tunnel toll plazas and to reduce air pollution resulting from the traffic congestion associated with those backups. Ascher Aff. ¶¶ 11-12. The E-ZPass technology permits a driver to pay a toll without having to stop the vehicle and without having to engage in the physical exchange of money, tokens or tickets with a human or automated toll collector. Id. ¶ 11. The system requires that each vehicle be equipped with a small electronic tag (installed on the vehicle’s windshield) that communicates information to an electronic reader installed in each E-ZPass toll lane. Id. ¶¶ 8, 23. The reader collects the information from the vehicle’s tag and transmits that information to a data center where the appropriate toll is electronically deducted from the vehicle owner’s prepaid account. Id. ¶ 8.

In order to enroll in E-ZPass, a customer is required to fill out an application form, which requests personal, commercial (if applicable) and vehicle identification information for billing purposes. Id. ¶¶ 20-21 & Exs. 1-2; Kristlibas Aff. ¶ 2 & Exs. A-B; O’Connor Reply Cert. Ex. A. Also on the application form, customers must elect to fund their accounts (ie., pay for their tolls in advance) either with cash or by credit card. Ascher Aff. ¶ 22. In addition, cash customers are required to pay a refundable security deposit for the tags, but credit card and commercial customers are not. Ascher Aff. ¶ 23; Rinaldi Aff. ¶¶ 10, 19; Ascher Reply Aff. ¶ 6. The vast majority of E-ZPass customers fund their accounts by credit card. Ascher Aff. ¶ 22.

Replenishment of cash balance accounts depends on the method of payment selected. For a cash customer, when the account dips below a threshold amount, the customer will see a warning light at the toll lane (e.g., a message stating “low balance/account low”), which notifies the customer of the need to replenish his or her account to a level at or above a fixed minimum. Id. Ex. 1. For a credit card customer, the E-ZPass system offers an automatic replenishment option, under which the card is charged a replenishment amount once the account balance falls below the threshold amount. Id. ¶ 26.

Along with the application form, each customer must submit a signed customer agreement. Id. ¶ 21; Rinaldi Aff. ¶ 13; Kristlibas Aff. ¶¶2-3. Significantly, the customer agreement expressly provides that interest accruing on the E-ZPass account balance (and, for cash customers, on the refundable tag deposit) will not be paid to the customer. Ascher Aff. ¶ 28 & Exs. 1-2; Rinaldi Aff. ¶ 14 & Ex. A; Kristlibas Aff. ¶ 4 & Ex. B; O’Connor Reply Cert. Ex. A. Customers do, however, receive discounts on them tolls solely for participating in E-ZPass, the monetary amounts of which vary depending on a customer’s commercial or non-commercial status, the particular entity defendant through which a customer has enrolled in E-ZPass, and the particular E-ZPass plan selected by the customer. Ascher Aff. ¶¶ 19, 37 & Ex. 1; Rinaldi Aff. ¶ 9; Kristlibas Aff. ¶ 2. Moreover, enrollment in E-ZPass is voluntary, and customers remain free to pay their tolls in contemporaneous cash transactions at the designated cash toll lanes. Rinaldi Aff. ¶¶ 5, 11-12; Ascher Reply Aff. ¶ 5. Indeed, as a result of the widespread use of E-ZPass and the dramatic shift of customers from cash lanes to E-ZPass lanes, backups and congestion at the traditional cash lanes have decreased from the levels that existed before the implementation of the E-ZPass system. Ascher Aff. ¶ 18; Ascher Reply Aff. ¶ 15.

Plaintiffs are an individual and a corporation seeking to represent a class consisting of all commercial and non-commercial customers with funds deposited in E-ZPass cash balance accounts. Pursuant to the above-described waiver in the E~ ZPass customer agreement, interest earned on the funds in E-ZPass accounts is retained by the entity defendants, and is [159]*159not distributed to the plaintiff customers. Plaintiffs complain that this practice violates the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution, and seek (i) to enjoin defendants from continuing to retain the interest earned on customer E-ZPass accounts and (ii) damages under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for the interest retained by defendants to date. I agree with defendants that the claim is without merit and grant their motion for summary judgment.

Discussion

The threshold question presented is whether the interest accruing on customer funds on deposit with E-ZPass, and, according to a cross-motion by plaintiffs to amend, whether the principal amounts themselves, are “private property” for purposes of the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment. Under the Takings Clause, “private property” shall not “be taken for public use, without just compensation.” U.S. Const, amend. V (made applicable to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment, see Chicago, B. & Q.R. Co. v. Chicago, 166 U.S. 226, 239, 17 S.Ct. 681, 585-86, 41 L.Ed. 979 (1897)). “Because the Constitution protects rather than creates property interests, the existence of a property interest [for purposes of the Takings Clause] is determined by reference to ‘existing rules or understandings that stem from an independent source such as state law.’ ” Phillips v. Washington Legal Foundation, 524 U.S. 156, 164, 118 S.Ct. 1925, 1930, 141 L.Ed.2d 174 (1998) (quoting Board of Regents of State Colleges v. Roth, 408 U.S. 564, 577, 92 S.Ct. 2701, 2709, 33 L.Ed.2d 548 (1972)).

Defendants argue that plaintiffs cannot establish, under applicable state law, the existence of a property interest in the E-ZPass account interest. As a consequence, defendants argue, there is no constitutionally protected “private property” here that defendants can be considered to have “taken.” In support of this argument, defendants point to the existence of consideration for any foregone interest in the forms of (i) the toll discounts customers receive solely for using E-ZPass and (ii) the convenience E-ZPass affords in comparison to traditional cash toll lanes. Thus, defendants state, the E-ZPass customer agreement is nothing more than a routine contract between a provider of services and its customers. Defendants analogize the E-ZPass arrangement to other voluntary commercial arrangements in which funds are advanced prior to the provision of goods and services, but in which, based on “common experience in our daily commercial life,” the purchaser is not entitled to any interest:

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Rosenfeld v. PORT AUTHORITY OF NY AND NJ
108 F. Supp. 2d 156 (E.D. New York, 2000)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
108 F. Supp. 2d 156, 42 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. 2d (West) 269, 2000 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10939, 2000 WL 1099883, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rosenfeld-v-port-authority-of-new-york-new-jersey-nyed-2000.