Uniden America Corp. v. Trunking Associates

841 S.W.2d 522, 72 Rad. Reg. 2d (P & F) 1, 1992 Tex. App. LEXIS 2905, 1992 WL 330893
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedNovember 6, 1992
Docket2-92-147-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 841 S.W.2d 522 (Uniden America Corp. v. Trunking Associates) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Uniden America Corp. v. Trunking Associates, 841 S.W.2d 522, 72 Rad. Reg. 2d (P & F) 1, 1992 Tex. App. LEXIS 2905, 1992 WL 330893 (Tex. Ct. App. 1992).

Opinion

OPINION ON REHEARING

MEYERS, Justice.

This is an interlocutory appeal by Uniden America Corporation, defendant below, from an order granting a temporary injunction sought by Trunking Associates, a Partnership, plaintiff below. The order enjoined appellant to desist and refrain from: a) relocating the six channel SMR station, KNIY 751; and b) removing, or attempting to remove any equipment used to operate the station. In appellant’s sole point of error it limited its appeal to the part of the order enjoining it from relocating the station. Yet, it clearly asked this court to vacate and dissolve the temporary injunction. Because of this broad prayer for relief, we interpreted its point of error as arguing that pre-emption from determining the location of the station necessarily includes pre-emption from determining the location of the station’s tangible property, the equipment. In our original opinion and *523 judgment, we reversed, vacated, and dissolved the trial court’s temporary injunction in part and affirmed and upheld the temporary injunction in part.

In a motion for rehearing, appellant clarified that it was only appealing the first part of the temporary injunction and was only asking us to partially vacate and dissolve the temporary injunction. Because of this clarification, there is no need for us to distinguish the law of pre-emption as it applies to the location of a station and as it applies to the location of the station’s tangible property. For this reason, we grant appellant’s motion for rehearing, withdraw our prior opinion and judgment, and only render an opinion as to the first portion of the temporary injunction.

We reverse, vacate, and dissolve the part of the temporary injunction which enjoins appellant from relocating the station.

Appellee initiated this suit in the state trial court based on a contract dispute on November 7, 1991. The contract dispute concerns the property rights to six conventional specialized mobile radio licenses and the equipment of the six channel system. Both are necessary to operate the station located in Euless, Texas. Within a month of the filing of the lawsuit, appellant applied to the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) for permission to relocate the station to Fort Worth, Texas.

The FCC granted appellant’s request to relocate on April 8, 1992. At the same time, appellant did not request a Special Temporary Authority (“S.T.A.”). An S.T.A, would allow appellant to continue its operations in Euless until the dispute was resolved. Without the S.T.A. appellant may only operate from the Fort Worth location. General Counsel for the FCC, Robert L. Pettit, noted that the S.T.A., if requested, would have been routinely granted.

In an attempt to maintain the status quo during the pendency of its lawsuit, appellee made a motion to the trial court to enjoin appellant from relocating the station and equipment to Fort Worth. In the motion, appellee argued that it, along with its agents and customers, would suffer irreparable harm and damage if appellant transferred the station and equipment. This is because the customers have a contractual relationship with appellee’s mobile radio service. Appellee alleges that the customers have no such agreement with appellant. Thus, the customers would no longer be provided with the service for which they contracted if the station and equipment were relocated. Even if appellee wins the lawsuit, its customer base would be destroyed by appellant’s transfer of the station and equipment to a new location.

Before the trial court granted this injunction, it granted appellant a partial summary judgment. This judgment ruled “that this Court is pre-empted from making any decision, ruling, and/or finding regarding the return and/or reassignment of the licenses made the basis of this lawsuit.” [Emphasis added.] On June 19, 1992, the trial court granted the temporary injunction against appellant, ordering that it “desist and refrain from [a) ] relocating the six channel SMR station, KNIY 751; [and b) ] removing, or attempting to remove any equipment used to operate this station,” until the first of either an FCC ruling or a date seven months from April 8, 1992, the date the FCC granted appellant’s relocation request.

Appellant’s sole point of error is that the trial court abused its discretion by granting this temporary injunction as to the location of the station because its order is preempted by the Federal Communications Act of 1934 (the Act), 47 U.S.C.S. §§ 151, 303(d) (Law. Co-op.1981). For the reasons stated below, we hold that the FCC does have exclusive jurisdiction over the location of stations.

Our review of an order granting or denying a temporary injunction is strictly limited to determining whether there has been a clear abuse of discretion by the trial court in granting or denying the interlocutory order. Davis v. Huey, 571 S.W.2d 859, 861-62 (Tex.1978). The trial court abuses its discretion when the law is misapplied to established facts. State v. Southwestern Bell Tel Co., 526 S.W.2d 526, 528 (Tex.1975).

*524 For our holding that the FCC has complete authority with regard to the location of stations under 47 U.S.C.S. §§ 151, 303(d), we begin our analysis with 47 U.S.C.S. § 151. This provision defines the purposes for which the FCC was created. 1 The stated purpose of the Act in section 151 is to make rapid, efficient, nationwide, and worldwide, wire and radio communication service by centralizing authority over this area in the FCC. 47 U.S.C.S. § 151. Under this broad scheme, Congress’s intent to occupy the field to the exclusion of state law is apparent. United States v. Southwestern Cable Co., 392 U.S. 157, 173, 88 S.Ct. 1994, 2003, 20 L.Ed.2d 1001, 1013 (1968) (FCC is given comprehensive mandate, with not niggardly but expansive powers). The United States Supreme Court has interpreted the Act as expressing “a desire on the part of Congress to maintain, through appropriate administrative control, a grip on the dynamic aspects of radio transmission.” Federal C.C. v. Pottsville Broadcasting Co., 309 U.S. 134, 138, 60 S.Ct. 437, 439, 84 L.Ed. 656, 659 (1940). This interpretation is strengthened by section 154(i) of the Act, which states:

(i) Duties and powers. The Commission may perform any and all acts, make such rules and regulations, and issue such orders, not inconsistent with this Act, as may be necessary in the execution of its functions.

47 U.S.C.S. § 154(i) (Law Co-op.1981) (emphasis added).

With the broad scheme of the Act in mind, We turn to section 303. It states:

Except as otherwise provided in this Act, the Commission from time to time, as public convenience, interest, or necessity requires, shall—
(d) Determine the location of classes of stations or individual stations.

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841 S.W.2d 522, 72 Rad. Reg. 2d (P & F) 1, 1992 Tex. App. LEXIS 2905, 1992 WL 330893, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/uniden-america-corp-v-trunking-associates-texapp-1992.