2011 Decisions

Opinions of the United

States Court of Appeals

for the Third Circuit

1-12-2011

E End Taxi Serv v. VI Port Auth

Precedential or Non-Precedential: Non-Precedential

Docket No. 08-1602

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NOT PRECEDENTIAL

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT

No. 08-1602

EAST END TAXI SERVICES, INC. 

v.

VIRGIN ISLANDS TAXI ASSOCIATION, INC.,

 

 (D.C. 3-06-cv-00146)

VIRGIN ISLANDS PORT AUTHORITY

v.

VIRGIN ISLANDS TAXI ASSOCIATION, INC.

 

 (D.C. 3-06-cv-00147)

CBI ACQUISITIONS, LLC, dba

CANEEL BAY RESORT

 

v.

VIRGIN ISLANDS TAXI ASSOCIATION, INC.

 (D.C. 3-06-cv-00148)

RITZ-CARLTON VIRGIN ISLANDS, INC.

 v.

VIRGIN ISLANDS TAXI ASSOCIATION, INC

 (D.C. 3-06-cv-00151)

BRAD JENCKS

v.
2

VIRGIN ISLANDS TAXI, ASSOCIATION, INC.

 

 (D.C. 3-06-cv-00152)

 Virgin Islands Taxi Association, Inc., 

 Appellant

Appeal from the District Court of the Virgin Islands, 

Division of St. Thomas and St. John,

Appellate Division

(D.C. 3-06-cv-00146, 00147, 00148, 

00151, 00152)

Submitted pursuant to Third Circuit LAR 34.1(a)

December 13, 2010

Before: McKEE, Chief Judge, FUENTES and SMITH,

Circuit Judges

(Opinion filed: January 12, 2011)

OPINION

McKEE, Chief Judge.

The Virgin Islands Taxi Association, Inc., (“VITA”) appeals a decision of the 

Appellate Division of the District Court of the Virgin Islands reversing and vacating 

contempt sanctions imposed by the Superior Court. The decision of the Appellate 

Division also vacated the Superior Court’s factual findings and remanded for further 

proceedings. For the reasons that follow, we will dismiss the VITA’s appeal for lack of 

appellate jurisdiction.

I. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

The Virgin Islands Port Authority (“Port Authority”) is a semi-autonomous 
3

governmental agency that owns and operates, inter alia, the Cyril E. King Airport on St. 

Thomas. On December 28, 1986, the Virgin Islands Legislature enacted Act No. 5231, 

which gave VITA an exclusive franchise to operate a public taxicab service from the 

Airport. However, the franchise did not extend to those leaving the Airport by :

a motor vehicle owned, operated or utilized by a tour agent in the 

transportation of passengers traveling on a prepaid or packaged tour, 

which has a minimum price of $50 and includes either lodging or 

transportation on an ocean common carrier; provided that transportation 

from the terminal facility is part of the overall transportation arranged for 

in the prepaid or packaged tour.

Act No. 5231 at §1(e). The franchise was granted for a ten year period and was 

renewable, at the option of the parties, for an additional ten year period.

The Port Authority thereafter promulgated regulations interpreting the Act, 

including the requirements for vouchers that would allow a party other than the VITA to 

pick up passengers at the Airport who were traveling on a prepaid or packaged tour.

On February 12, 1997, the VITA filed an action in the Territorial Court (now 

Superior Court), seeking declaratory and injunctive relief, as well as damages. VITA 

alleged that the Port Authority, the Ritz-Carlton Virgin Islands, Inc., East End Taxi 

Services, Inc., and Caneel Bay Resort (later, “CBI Acquisitions”) had violated the taxi 

franchise. On March 10, 1997, following a hearing, the court issued its memorandum 

opinion granting a preliminary injunction. Virgin Islands Taxi Assoc., Inc. v. Virgin 

Islands Port Authority, 1997 WL 143960 (Terr. Ct. Mar. 10, 1997). The Appellate 

Division thereafter affirmed. Virgin Islands Port Authority v. Virgin Islands Taxi Assoc., 

979 F. Supp. 344 (D.V.I. 1997). 
4

The preliminary injunction never became permanent and years passed, apparently 

without any problems. However, on May 12, 2004, the VITA alleged that East End Taxi, 

Ritz-Carlton and Caneel Bay continued to use improper vouchers to pick up guests at the 

Airport. The VITA moved for a contempt order against the Port Authority (but not the 

other defendants) contending that the VITA failed to have the other defendants comply 

with the 1997 preliminary injunction. 

On August 3, 2005, the Superior Court held the Port Authority in contempt for 

violating the March 10, 1997, preliminary injunction, and instructed all the defendants 

to “forthwith cease and desist from operating in a manner contrary to the statutory 

requirements of Act 5231.”

On June 13, 2006, based on its construction of the Act, the court found the 

defendants in contempt of the 1997 preliminary injunction. The court ordered the Port 

Authority, East End, the Ritz-Carlton and Caneel Bay to each pay “the sum of $1,000 per 

day effective March 1, 2006, until such time as they comply with the Court’s Preliminary 

Injunction, and Order dated August 3, 2005.” The court further ordered the Port 

Authority to pay an additional $8,135.00 “as retroactive sanctions with respect to the 

Court’s August 3, 2005 Order.”

Immediately following the court’s order, the Ritz-Carlton stopped providing its 

prepaid guests transportation from the airport. It notified the court of its action by filing a 

Notice of Compliance on June 16, 2006. That same day, the VITA filed a Motion for 

Contempt Finding. The court, on July 31, 2006, issued a scheduling order setting a 

hearing on VITA’s contempt motion for September 7, 2006. The order stated that it was 
5

to be personally served on Brad Jencks, the Ritz-Carlton’s General Manager. However, 

the order did not state that Jencks was required to personally appear at the hearing. And, 

no subpoena was issued to Jencks requiring that he personally attend the hearing.

At the September 7, 2006, hearing, the court focused on whether the defendants 

continued to be in contempt after its June 13, 2006, decision and order. The court held 

that the Port Authority continued to be in contempt. The court found that the RitzCarlton was not in contempt because the Ritz-Carlton had stopped transporting its guests 

from the Airport since June 16, 2006. However, the court ordered the Ritz-Carlton and 

the other defendants to pay the earlier assessed sanctions in full within two business days, 

or face the arrest of their personnel. The payments were retroactive to March 1, 2006. 

The court also issued a bench warrant for the arrest of Jencks, who was not in the Virgin 

Islands and, therefore, had not appeared at the hearing. The bench warrant stated that 

Jencks had been found in contempt for failing to appear at the September 7, 2006, 

hearing.

All of the defendants took interlocutory appeals to the Appellate Division of the 

District Court. They also filed a motion for an emergency stay pending appeal. On 

September 11, 2006, the Appellate Division granted the stay. Jencks, a non-party, also 

appealed and moved for a stay of execution of the bench warrant, which the Appellate 

Division also granted.

On February 6, 2008, the Appellate Division held that it had jurisdiction over the 

defendants’ appeals and Jencks’ appeal seeking review of the contempt orders. East End 

Taxi Services v. Virgin Islands Taxi Assoc., 2008 WL 570948 at *7-12 (D.V.I. Feb. 6, 
6

2008). It then reversed the contempt findings against the defendants and Jencks. Id. at 

*14-16. Finally, the Appellate Division found that the record evidence was insufficient 

to demonstrate that VITA’s franchise had been renewed in 1997. Id. at *12-14. 

Therefore, it remanded to the Superior Court for that court to determine if VITA’s 

franchise was renewed and remains in effect. The court explained: 

[T]he evidence in the record is insufficient to support the 

existence of a valid renewal of the franchise granted in Act 

5231. If the franchise was not properly renewed, then the 

appellants could not have been held in contempt for violating 

the March 10, 1997, preliminary injunction and the August 3, 

2005, order, which incorporated the provisions of Act. 5231. 

It is, therefore, incumbent upon the Superior Court to address 

the issue of franchise renewal as a threshold matter upon 

remand.

Id. at *14. 

VITA then filed this appeal.

II. DISCUSSION

“[I]t is 48 U.S.C. § 1613a(c), not 28 U.S.C. § 1291, that confers jurisdiction on 

this Court over appeals from the Appellate Division.” See Gov’t of the Virgin Islands v. 

Hodge, 359 F.3d 312, 317 (3d Cir. 2004). However, “this distinction is only technical –

our cases have uniformly held that 48 U.S.C. § 1613a(c) has the same requirements for 

appealability as 28 U.S.C. § 1291.” Id. (citing cases). We must determine whether the 

Appellate Division’s order, vacating and remanding this matter was a final decision under 

48 U.S.C. § 1613a(c). Clearly, it is not a final decision for two reasons. Remand orders 

are not final orders under 48 U.S.C. § 1613a(c). See In re Alison, 837 F.2d 619 (3d Cir. 

1988); Ortiz v. Dodge, 126 F.3d 545 (3d Cir. 1997). Second, the appeals of the 
7

defendants and Jencks to the Appellate Division were interlocutory. Here, the VITA is 

asking us to reconsider an interlocutory order of the Appellate Division. However, 

in view of the finality policy of 28 U.S.C. § 1291 and 48 

U.S.C. § 1613a(c), this is something we do not generally 

engage in (absent specific statutory authorization). Such 

statutory authorization comes from Congress. See U.S. 

Const. Art III. § 1 (“The judicial Power of the United States 

shall be vested in . . . such inferior Courts as the Congress 

may from time to time ordain and establish.”). If we were to 

blithely take jurisdiction over appeals of decisions that the 

Appellate Division rendered on interlocutory appeal, we 

would in practice be allowing our jurisdiction to expand 

based on the Virgin Islands Legislature’s exercise of its 

authority, under 48U.S.C. § 1613a(a), to determine the 

appellate jurisdiction of the Appellate Division. Of course, 

the scheme in § 1613a means that, for a Territorial Court case 

to appear on our docket on appeal, it is necessary that the 

Virgin Islands Legislature confer intermediate appellate 

jurisdiction on the Appellate Division; but it does not follow 

that such a jurisdictional statute is sufficient to confer 

jurisdiction, in turn, on this Court. Hence we decline to 

conclude that in enacting § 1613a Congress intended to cede 

to the Virgin Islands Legislature such control over this 

Court’s jurisdiction. 

Thus, we hold that the Appellate Division’s decision is not a 

“final decision” in the most common sense under 48 U.S.C. § 

1613a(c), and therefore this Court does not have appellate 

jurisdiction in the normal sense.

Hodge, 359 F.3d at 318-19 (footnote omitted)(emphasis in original). 

Because the order of the Appellate Division was not a final order, we have no 

appellate jurisdiction over the VITA’s appeal. Accordingly, we will dismiss the VITA’s 

appeal.

However, although we have no jurisdiction to review the merits of the Appellate 

Division’s decision, we do have jurisdiction to review the limited question of the 
8

Appellate Division’s determination of its own jurisdiction. Hodge, 359 F.3d at 320-21. 

It is clear that the Appellate Division had jurisdiction to hear Jencks’ interlocutory 

appeal. A contempt order against a non-party, whether criminal or civil in nature, is 

immediately appealable. See United States Catholic Conf. v. Abortion Rights 

Mobilization, Inc., 487 U.S. 72, 76 (1988). 

It is also clear that the Appellate Division had jurisdiction to hear the defendants’ 

interlocutory appeals because criminal contempt sanctions are considered final and 

appealable in pending actions by parties and non-parties. See Commonwealth of 

Pennsylvania v. Local Union 542, Int’l Union of Operating Engineers, 552 F.2d 498, 501 

(3d Cir. 1977) (a non-party may appeal an order of criminal contempt arising out of an 

action under 28 U.S.C. § 1291); Carbon Fuel Co. v. United Mine Workers of Am., 517 

F.2d 1348, 1349 (4th Cir. 1975) (reasoning that a party may immediately appeal a 

criminal contempt citation in a pending action because “criminal contempt proceedings 

are independent of the main action and any conviction therein is a final order and 

appealable”); IBM Corp. v. United States, 493 F.2d 112, 114 (2d Cir. 1973) (“An order 

finding a party in criminal contempt is appealable.”). 

Here, the fines imposed on the defendants were retrospective and thus could not be 

purged; they were ordered paid into the court registry; and they were not based on any 

factual determination of damages. Clearly, the fines imposed meet the definition of 

criminal contempt sanctions. See Int’l Union, United Mine Workers of Am. v. Bagwell, 

512 U.S. 821, 827-28 (1994); Hicks v. Feiock, 485 U.S. 624, 632-38 (1988). Thus, the 

Appellate Division had jurisdiction over the defendants’ interlocutory appeals. 
9

III. CONCLUSION

For all of the above reasons, we will dismiss the VITA’s appeal for lack of 

appellate jurisdiction.