Bay Cities Transit Co. v. City of Los Angeles

THE COURT. The question for determination in this case is controlled by our decision this day filed in the case of Los Angeles Railway Corporation v. City of Los Angeles, L. A. No. 17460, post, p. 779 [108 Pac. (2d) 430]. The opinion of the District Court of Appeal, Second District, Division Two, to which the appeal herein was originally taken, contains a statement of the facts and a determination of the controversy in conformity with the views of this court expressed in its opinion in Los Angeles Railway Corporation v. City of Los Angeles, supra. We, therefore, adopt the per curiam opinion of the District Court of Appeal as the opinion of this court. It is as follows:

Plaintiff commenced this action to prevent the board of public utilities and transportation of the city of Los Angeles from interfering with the operation of plaintiff’s bus line on the speedway in the Venice district of said city. Plaintiff contends that ordinance No. 58198, under the terms of which the city claims the right to divert the plaintiff’s buses from the speedway, is ineffective for this purpose, since the subject matter of the ordinance is under the control of the railroad commission of the State of California. A general demurrer to the petition was sustained and, plaintiff declining to amend, a judgment of dismissal was entered from which this appeal is prosecuted.

Plaintiff operates a passenger bus line along a route lying partially within the city of Los Angeles and partially within the city of Santa Monica. In the year 1935 upon plaintiff’s application for a certificate of public convenience and necessity, the railroad commission of the State of California made an order designating the route to be followed by plaintiff [774]in operating such bus line and restricting operations to that route only. In compliance with the requirements of Ordinance No. 58198 of the city of Los Angeles, plaintiff applied for and obtained a permit from the board of public utilities and transportation of such city to operate its bus line over those portions of the route designated by the railroad commission which were situated within the corporate limits of the city of Los Angeles. The only portion of such operation with which we are here concerned is the portion lying within the Venice district of the city of Los Angeles. Commencing in May, 1938, a series of hearings were held by the board of public utilities and transportation for the purpose of determining the convenience and necessity of the operation of plaintiff’s buses over that portion of the designated route lying within the Venice district. As a result of these hearings the board found that the operation of buses over the portion of the designated route in question was extremely hazardous, and concluded that the portion of the operation lying within the Venice district should be rerouted in the interests of safety. Accordingly the board made its order that plaintiff’s permit “be canceled, effective at 12:01 A. M., March 5, 1939, and the Company be notified that this Board will, upon receipt of proper application, grant a new permit for the operation of said bus line over the Speedway from the Los Angeles-Santa Monica City Boundary to Navy Street”, one-half of the traffic to be over the old route and the other half over a newly designated route.