State v. Houston Tour & Charter Service, Inc.

460 S.W.2d 113, 14 Tex. Sup. Ct. J. 85, 1970 Tex. LEXIS 271
CourtTexas Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 18, 1970
DocketNo. B-2094
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 460 S.W.2d 113 (State v. Houston Tour & Charter Service, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Texas Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Houston Tour & Charter Service, Inc., 460 S.W.2d 113, 14 Tex. Sup. Ct. J. 85, 1970 Tex. LEXIS 271 (Tex. 1970).

Opinion

STEAKLEY, Justice.

The question here is whether Houston Tour & Charter Service, Inc., respondent, is a statutory “Motor Bus Company” in the respects under review, and hence subject to the requirements of the Texas Motor Bus Act, Article 911a, Vernon’s Annotated Texas Civil Statutes. In suit by the State the trial court ruled that motor bus operations over the public highways in the manner instituted by respondent were contrary to the statute. Respondent was enjoined from continuing the service. After originally affirming the judgment of the trial court, the court of civil appeals on motion for rehearing considered its prior decision in Foster v. Railroad Commission et al., 215 S.W.2d 267 (Tex.Civ.App.1948, no writ), to be controlling and reversed the judgment of the trial court and ordered the injunction dissolved. 451 S.W.2d 244. We reverse this judgment, affirm that of the trial court and reinstate the injunction.

The controlling facts are undisputed. Respondent holds a permit from the City of Houston authorizing the performance of a charter bus service within the City and its right to operate pursuant thereto is not in dispute.1 The distinguishing characteristic of a charter bus service is that routes, points of service and times of departure, arrival and return, are determined by the chartering passengers. The controversy inheres in the fact that respondent has extended its charter bus service to points and places beyond the City of Houston and its suburbs, the performance of which necessitates the transportation of persons for compensation or hire over the public highways. The service is regular in the sense that it is available to the public on call in ordinary course of business and will be rendered more often than casually or occasionally. Respondent has not filed for and hence has not obtained an authorizing certificate of public convenience and necessity from the Railroad Commission of Texas and insists upon its right to so operate without compliance with Article 911a.

Section 1(c) of Article 911a comprehensively defines a Motor Bus Company as:

“The term ‘Motor Bus Company’ when used in this Act means every corporation or persons as herein defined, their lessees, trustees, receivers, or trustees appointed by any court whatsoever, owning, controlling, operating or managing any motor propelled passenger vehicle not [115]*115usually operated on or over rails, and engaged in the business of transporting persons for compensation or hire over the public highways within the State of Texas, whether operating over fixed routes or fixed schedules, or otherwise; * * 2

Section 2 provides that:

“All motor-bus companies, as defined herein, are hereby declared to be ‘common carriers’ and subject to regulation by the State of Texas, and shall not operate any motor propelled passenger vehicle for the regular transportation of persons as passengers for compensation or hire over any public highway in this State except in accordance with the provision of this Act, * * *.”

Broad regulatory powers and duties are vested in the Railroad Commission; for example, Sections 4(a) and 4(d) provide:

“Sec. 4. (a) The Commission is hereby vested with power and authority, and it is hereby made its duty to supervise and regulate the public service rendered by every motor bus company operating over the highways in this State, * *
“(d) The Commission is further authorized and empowered to supervise and regulate motor bus companies in all other matters affecting the relationship between such motor bus companies and the traveling public that may be necessary to the efficient operation of this law.” Section 5 establishes this requirement:
“No motor-bus company shall hereafter regularly operate for the transportation of persons as passengers for compensation or hire over the public highways of this State without first having obtained from the Commission under the provisions of this Act a certificate or permit declaring that the public convenience and necessity require such operation; * * *.”

These and other requirements of Article 911a manifest an original and continuing legislative purpose to regulate in the public interest those carriers which use the public highways in the transportation of passengers for compensation or hire. See Texas Motor Coaches, Inc. v. Railroad Commission et al., 41 S.W.2d 1074 (Tex.Civ. App.1931, no writ.) ; and Cf. Woolf v. Del Rio Motor Transp. Co., 27 S.W.2d 874, 875 (Tex.Civ.App.1930, no writ). Respondent concedes that motor bus operations over the public highways and beyond the authority of its permit from the City of Houston fall within the statutory definition of a Motor Bus Company. Notwithstanding, it says, it is immune from the statutory requirements because it does not perform the charter bus service over fixed routes and on established schedules. It argues that the statutory definition should be judicially constricted to include only motor bus companies operating over fixed routes and schedules. The argument seeks credibility in the statutory phrases of “regular transportation of persons” in Section 2 of Article 911a and “regularly operate for the transportation of persons” in Section 5; and in the requirement of Section 8 that an application for a certificate shall set forth, among other matters of information, “The complete route or routes over which the applicant desires to operate,” together with “A proposed time schedule.” These expressions, it is said, manifest a legislative purpose contrary to the terms of the Section 1(c) definition of a Motor Bus Company.

The terms “regular” and “regularly” which appear in Sections 2 and 5 were carried over from the corresponding sections of the original Motor Bus Act of 1927 in which the definition of “Motor Bus Company” was stated in terms of engaging “regularly in the business of transporting persons as passengers for compensation or hire over the public highways between points within the State of Texas, whether operating over fixed routes or otherwise, * * * » 3 is thus self-evident that use [116]*116of the term “regularly” in the original definition4 and of similar terms in original Sections 2 and 5, did not carry the connotation of fixed or regular route operations since the definition expressly excluded operations over fixed routes or otherwise as definitive or restrictive elements. Likewise evident at all times in the statutory definition and related provisions is the all-inclusive regulation of passenger transportation over the public highways. Section 2 says that all motor bus companies as defined in Section 1 are common carriers and this necessarily includes carriers performing the service by charter arrangements since they clearly come within the terms of the definition of a motor bus company. This construction is not only reasonable and in conformity with the words of the statute, but is essential as well to the accomplishment of the declared purposes of the Legislature in the regulation of passenger transportation over the highways.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

B.L. Key, Inc. v. Utah State Tax Commission
934 P.2d 1164 (Court of Appeals of Utah, 1997)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
460 S.W.2d 113, 14 Tex. Sup. Ct. J. 85, 1970 Tex. LEXIS 271, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-houston-tour-charter-service-inc-tex-1970.