Opinion ID: 3013508
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: “Public Conveyance”

Text: The threshold issue is whether the EA airplane in which Mrs. Pilosi died qualifies as a “public conveyance.” Counsel for the Pilosis strenuously argue that, much like a taxicab, the airplane was a public conveyance. Although Caesars controlled who was allowed to board this particular flight, the Pilosis assert that the airplane was available for any member of the public at-large to charter before and after the Caesars flight. On the other hand, the Insurer contends that the airplane was not a public conveyance because members of the public at-large were not free to purchase tickets for the flight. 6 Unfortunately, the policy does not define “public conveyance.” However, the record reveals that the carrier was, indeed, a public conveyance. The airplane in which Mrs. Pilosi was traveling was owned and operated by an air carrier licensed by the Federal Aviation Administration to conduct common carriage. The airplane belonged to a company that was engaged in the business of hiring out airplanes for general public use. More importantly, EA made its services available to the general public. According to the deposition of EA’s CEO, Michael Peragine, EA was open to “anyone who had money who wanted to fly.” Thus, EA could be hired by anyone with the ability to pay, either before or after the Caesars flight. Analogous to a public taxicab, which the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has held to be a “public conveyance,” Primrose v. Cas. Co., 81 A. 212, 214 (Pa. 1911), “[t]he use of no one of [EA’s] machines was limited to any particular person, but anyone able to pay the price and privilege of riding in it . . . could do so.” Id. at 213. J.C. Penney Life challenges the taxicab analogy. It disputes the Pilosis’ reliance on the holding in Terminal Taxicab Co., Inc. v. Kutz, 241 U.S. 252, 255 (1916). The issue in Terminal Taxicab was whether a taxicab company that offered its services to hotel guests pursuant to a contract with the hotel still retained its public character. The Court held that the taxicab company retained its public character even though it served primarily hotel guests. The Court noted that “[n]o carrier serves all the public. His customers are limited by place, requirements, ability to pay and other facts . . . .” Id. 7 J.C. Penney Life’s efforts to distinguish Terminal Taxicab are unpersuasive. J.C. Penney Life distinguishes the Terminal Taxicab taxi from the EA airplane on the ground that anyone could access the taxis stationed in front of the hotel, while the airplane was restricted to Caesars passengers. J.C. Penney Life’s insistence that a vehicle must be available for “walk-up passengers” in order to qualify as a “public conveyance” misses the point. As both the Terminal Taxicab and Primrose Courts articulate, passenger limitations imposed by any particular customer with regard to any particular taxi ride – i.e., designating the passengers, the destination, and the schedule of the trip – do not negate the public character of the conveyance. Terminal Taxicab, 241 U.S. at 255; Primrose, 81 A. at 213-14; see also Brill v. Indianapolis Life Ins. Co., 784 F.2d 1511, 1514 (11th Cir. 1986) (holding that hiring a helicopter on a particular occasion limited the helicopter’s “operation; however these limitations as to time, place and passengers were no different than those imposed on the taxi service discussed in Terminal Taxicab Co.. For purposes of the one flight . . . , the decedent and his employer had the exclusive use of the helicopter as to contents, direction and time of use. Their control was not so pervasive, however, as to negate the public character of [the helicopter’s] service.”). J.C. Penney Life claims that the proper test to determine whether a conveyance is public or private is the extent to which the public has access to the conveyance. Under J.C. Penney Life’s test, however, the plane qualifies as public because it can be accessed 8 by any member of the public who has the financial means to rent it. J.C. Penney Life is insensible to the public nature of the air taxi because general members of the public may not board the flight on those occasions when Caesars charters the plane. But being temporarily restricted to a paying client does not transform a public conveyance into a private carrier. When a patron enters a public taxicab, the cab is effectively private for the duration of the fare. However, once the fare is completed, anyone may hire the taxi. The same goes for an air taxi, such as EA. When the plane is engaged by a person, that person is the very public to which the plane is available. The final indicator that EA’s plane was a “public conveyance” is that Caesars did not use exclusively the particular aircraft employed for the fateful flight – the November 16 Echo Juliet. J.C. Penney Life’s assertion that the flight was private rather than public would be more persuasive if, instead of being available for public hire, the EA jet was reserved exclusively for Caesars.3 However, other members of the public in addition to Caesars could use the Echo Juliet plane when not otherwise committed. Caesars merely procured EA’s services on a regular basis. We are therefore convinced that the plane was a public, rather than private, conveyance. However, this conclusion does not resolve the 3 The essence of the concurrence is that the restrictions here constitute a total and arbitrary exclusion of the general public to such an extent that no member of the public can exercise any control over the flights because Caesars has rendered them unto itself. (Concurrence at 7). Like the usual taxicab passenger, Caesars may have control over the specific flight it chartered every two weeks, but flights during the rest of the day and the other thirteen days of the bi-weekly period were available to the public generally. There is no evidence that Caesars had contracted for them or that EA's planes were totally operated for and in behalf of Caesars at all times. 9 issue, for we must examine other pertinent terms of the policy contract.