Los Angeles Railway Corp. v. City of Los Angeles

The City of Los Angeles adopted an initiative ordinance requiring crews of at least two persons on all street cars in the City of Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Bail way Corporation, pursuant to an order of the Bailroad Commission granting it permission so to do, had theretofore purchased new specified equipment and converted and standardized its existing equipment for the operation of one-man street cars, and had been so operating them. It filed an action against the city by which it sought to have the ordinance declared unconstitutional and void and the officers of the defendant enjoined from attempting to enforce it. The cause was submitted upon a written stipulation of facts. The court found for the plaintiff and entered its judgment granting the relief sought. The defendant appealed from the judgment.

It appears from the stipulated facts that for many years, under the jurisdiction of the Bailroad Commission, the plaintiff had been and is operating a unified public utility street railway and motor coach transportation system rendering service for the transportation of passengers in and between the cities of Los Angeles, Inglewood, Hawthorne, Huntington Park, Vernon, Maywood, South Gate, Culver City and Bell, and in certain unincorporated areas of the county of Los Angeles. The service is rendered by means of twenty-five street railway lines, seventeen of which are operated within the City of Los Angeles and the remaining eight in the City of Los Angeles and in the outlying incorporated and unincorporated areas. Six shuttle lines also serve the outlying unincorporated and various incorporated areas. A transfer system is in effect which provides for exchange of passengers between the plaintiff’s railway system and a coach system in which it owns a one-half interest, and between the plaintiff’s lines and the Pacific Electric Bailway Company’s interurban transportation system.

The City of Los Angeles is the center of the metropolitan area. In the year 1938 the plaintiff’s railway lines transported within and without the city nearly 254,000,000 passengers.

In December, 1935, pursuant to instructions from the City Council the Board of Public Utilities and Transportation of the City of Los Angeles instituted ail independent investigation into the matter of one-man operation of street cars in the city. On November 14, 1936, as a result of that investigation and after hearings, the board published a resolution and order adopting regulations to promote the safety and convenience of public utility companies operating street cars in the City of Los Angeles. The regulation required that every street car be operated by a crew of not less than two men except that approval of the board might be obtained for one-man operation upon compliance with certain conditions as to equipment, route, hours of operation and adequacy of service.

Pursuant to the agreement with the city and the conditions of the foregoing order of the board, the plaintiff has expended or incurred obligations to the extent of more than $1,600,000 for new one-man street ears which are now in service in the City of Los Angeles and surrounding cities and unincorporated areas served by it. In addition it has

Upon application of the Railway Company to, and after public hearing by, the Railroad Commission, the latter issued its order .on March 27, 1939, permitting one-man operation of its street cars over certain lines of its system within and without the city. It is conceded that the one-man cars are equipped with all the devices, appliances and fixtures which are required by the above-mentioned order of the Board of Public Utilities and Transportation, and that the operation of one-man ears has been put into effect without the laying off or discharging of any employees of the plaintiff. It is also conceded that the lines of such operation are located upon streets and highways, some of which are established as primary and others as secondary state highways.

On May 2, 1939, the electors of the city adopted the initiative ordinance hereinabove referred to, which required operation of each street car over the lines of the plaintiff in the City of Los Angeles by two men, designated as a motorman and a conductor, and providing punishment for the violation of the ordinance by fine or imprisonment or both.

It was also stipulated that competent credible expert witnesses for the plaintiff would testify that the type of street cars operated by the plaintiff and designed for one-man operation could be operated more safely by one man than by two men, and that the one-man operation of said street cars as authorized by the Railroad Commission is more expeditious and affords greater convenience to the public than the operation by two men as required by the ordinance; and that equally competent and credible expert witnesses for the defendant would testify to the contrary, namely, that operation by two men was safer, more expeditious and convenient than operation by one man.

The court found that the matters which were the subject of the ordinance requiring two-man operation and of the Railroad Commission’s order permitting one-man operation were not matters solely of local or municipal concern to the City of Los Angeles, but were of general public concern, and that the Railroad Commission had the paramount jurisdiction over the operation of the plaintiff’s railway system,

The case presents a conflict between an ordinance of the City of Los Angeles and an order of the Railroad Commission. The question is as to which is controlling. The conflict may be resolved by a consideration of the question whether the trial court correctly concluded on the stipulated facts that the operation of the street cars of the plaintiff over the territory designated by one man or two men was a question of general interest and not a matter of strictly local concern and, therefore, not a municipal affair. The stipulated facts considered in the light of recent decisions in this state leaves little room for debate.

It is not necessary to review the history of the chartered organization of the City of Los Angeles in connection with the various amendments of section 8, article XI, or section 23, article XII, of the Constitution. The Constitution grants to chartered municipal corporations complete autonomy in respect to municipal affairs. But the question here is disposed of by our conclusion that the facts disclose that the one-man or two-man operation of ears over the plaintiff’s railway system is not a matter exclusively of municipal concern and is, therefore, not a municipal affair within the meaning of said sections of the Constitution; and that the question of such operation does not relate merely to the power to make and enforce local, police, sanitary or other regulations covering the plaintiff which it may be assumed has vested in the City of Los Angeles, pursuant to the provisions of said section 23; or, if it may be said to be a police regulation, that it relates to a matter which is not strictly a local affair and, therefore, has not been included in the reserved power. It, therefore, becomes unnecessary to discuss the evidence as to the comparative safety of one-man or two-man operation of street cars in the City of Los Angeles. If the matter is one which is under the exclusive control and supervision of the Railroad Commission, the commission’s decision in that respect is binding and conclusive in this proceeding.

The line of decisions in this state which supports a conclusion in favor of the plaintiff begins with the case of Civic Center Assn. v. Railroad Com., 175 Cal. 441 [ 166 Pac. 351 ]. In that ease this court granted an application for a writ of mandate directed to the Railroad Commission to entertain

Subsequent to the decision in the Civic Center case, and in Ex parte Daniels, 183 Cal. 636 [ 192 Pac. 442 , 21 A. L. R. 1172 ], this court held that by the adoption of the Motor Vehicle Act in 1917 the regulation of speed of motor vehicles in chartered cities had ceased to be a strictly municipal affair. It was said: “While it is true that the regulation of traffic upon a public street is of special interest to the people of a municipality, it does not follow that such regulation is a municipal affair, and if there is a doubt as to whether or not such regulation is a municipal affair, that doubt must be resolved in favor of the legislative authority of the state.” (See, also, In re Murphy, 190 Cal. 286 [ 212 Pac. 30 ]; Atlas Mixed Mortar Co. v. City of Burbank, 202 Cal. 660 [ 262 Pac. 334 ]; Morel v. Railroad Com., 11 Cal. (2d) 488 [ 81 Pac. (2d) 144 ] ; Sincerney v. City of Los Angeles, 53 Cal. App. 440 [ 200 Pac. 380 ].)

In Gadd v. McGuire, 69 Cal. App. 347 [ 231 Pac. 754 ], a writ of mandamus was issued directing the Board of Public Works of the City of Los Angeles to proceed under a contract executed pursuant to the City Boundary Line Act (Stats. 1911, p. 1018, as amended Stats. 1923, p. 633), looking to the improvement of streets extending partly in the city and

In Key System Transit Co. v. City of Oakland, 124 Cal. App. 733 [ 13 Pac. (2d) 979 ], the trial court had rendered judgment enjoining the enforcement of an ordinance which required the operation of street cars by two men. In February, 1914, and prior to the 1914 amendment of section 23, article XII, of the Constitution, the city had voted not to retain control of public utilities. The plaintiff operated street railway lines within the city and elsewhere in the counties of Alameda and Contra Costa. It applied to the Bailroad Commission for and was granted permission to continue operation of one-man cars on certain lines. A prosecution had been instituted against the plaintiff and one of its employees charging a violation of the ordinance by the operation of a one-man street car on the Twenty-third Avenue line, which was wholly within the city. On the appeal it was held that the subject of regulation was not a municipal affair. Among other cases, it relied on the decisions hereinabove cited. It said: “Here the line over which the one-man street car was operated is wholly within the City of Oakland; but this fact is not decisive, as regulations respecting the number of men to be employed in the operation of such cars as well as those governing the speed, or prescribing other precautions to avoid accidents, are essentially regulations controlling travel, and traffic on public streets; and in accordance with the rulings in the above cases, are not matters of purely local concern. Furthermore, the power to so regulate is manifestly ‘ cognate and germane to the regulation and control of public utilities’ ”, citing East Bay etc. List. v. Railroad Com., 194 Cal. 603 [ 229 Pac. 949 ]. (See, also, Connecticut Co. v. City of New Haven, 103 Conn. 197 [ 130 Atl. 169 ].) In the last cited case it was said: “The one man ear ordinance is not the regulation of an exclusively local condition. This is plain

A consideration of the stipulated facts, in the light of the foregoing decisions, leads to the conclusion that the trial court correctly found that the regulation and operation of the street cars of the plaintiff over the territory involved is not a matter solely of local concern and is not, therefore, a municipal affair. Whether the operation of the cars should be by a crew of one man or two men is a question which is of concern to all the patrons of the system, those who reside outside as well as those who reside within the City of Los Angeles. The stipulated facts indicate that the questions of economy of operation, greater efficiency in the service, both from the standpoints of quality and frequency, the cost of equipment, and other related matters may be and undoubtedly are directly affected by the mode of operation, whether by crews of one man or two men, and consequently affect the benefits to be derived by the public from the service.

The regulation is clearly within the power vested in the Railroad Commission by the Constitution and the Public Utilities Act. The trial court, therefore, correctly concluded

The judgment is affirmed.

Mr. Justice Houser did not participate in the foregoing decision.