Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/346/402/
Timestamp: 2019-04-23 02:00:32+00:00

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Justia › US Law › US Case Law › US Supreme Court › Volume 346 › Pub. Util. Comm'n v. United Air Lines, Inc.
Public Utilities Commission of California v. United Air Lines, Inc.
The judgment in this case is reversed on the authority of Public Service Comm'n v. Wycoff Co., 344 U. S. 237.
This case is here on appeal from a judgment of a three-judge court for the Northern District of California. United Air Lines v. California Public Utilities Commission, 109 F.Supp. 13. The judgment is reversed on authority of Public Service Commission v. Wycoff, 344 U. S. 237.
MR. JUSTICE DOUGLAS, with whom MR. JUSTICE REED concurs, dissenting.
The case seems to me to be peculiarly one for relief by declaratory judgment. The question is whether California or the Federal Government has jurisdiction over the rates which United Air Lines charges for transportation between points on the mainland of California and Catalina Island. Catalina Island is part of California. Therefore, the California Public Utilities Commission claims jurisdiction. But the Civil Aeronautics Act, 52 Stat. 973, 49 U.S.C. § 401 et seq., gives the Civil Aeronautics Board authority over rates for transportation "between places in the same State of the United States through the air space over any place outside thereof." United Air Lines and the Board both claim that flights from the mainland to Catalina (which is 30 miles from the mainland) are over the "high seas," and therefore under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Board. That was the view of the District Court. 109 F.Supp. 13. Whether it was right or wrong is the question presented for decision.
The controversy is real and substantial, for the California Commission has directed United to file tariffs, claiming unequivocally jurisdiction over the rates to and from Catalina.
such situation is presented here. It would, I assume, be conceded that the question of what constitutes the "high seas" is a federal question. The resolution of that question will in no manner be advanced by remitting United to administrative hearings before a commission which -- if the District Court below is correct -- has no jurisdiction to act.
"intended to save tedious and costly litigation by ascertaining at the outset the controlling fact or law involved, thus either concluding the litigation or thereafter confining it within more precise limitations."
Id., p. 2. And the Senate Report noted that one of the functions served by this form of relief is "the declaration of rights contested under a statute or municipal ordinance, where it was not possible or necessary to obtain an injunction." S.Rep. No. 1005, 73d Cong., 2d Sess., p. 2. Another is the adjudication of disputes "without requiring a destruction of the status quo." Id., p. 6.
all sides are exhausted at the end of a long drawn-out litigation.
Declaratory relief is peculiarly appropriate in case of a jurisdictional controversy which can be settled by a ruling of law. See Order of Railway Conductors v. Swan, 329 U. S. 520. There is that kind of jurisdictional controversy here, for a federal agency claims that a state commission may not act because Congress put the matter exclusively in the federal domain. In a case less clear than this, we enjoined state proceedings after concluding that Congress had preempted the field. Rice v. Santa Fe Elevator Corp., 331 U. S. 218. By the same token, we should settle this controversy at this early stage. By denying relief, we advance no cause except that of litigation.

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