Opinion ID: 718593
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Bebchick Fund

Text: 4 The history of the Bebchick Fund begins in 1968 when this court set aside three Commission orders increasing D.C. Transit's fares and ordered the company to make restitution to the bus riders in the Washington metropolitan area for excessive fares collected. See Williams v. Washington Metro. Area Transit Comm'n, 415 F.2d 922, 938-43 (D.C.Cir.1968), cert. denied, 393 U.S. 1081, 89 S.Ct. 860, 21 L.Ed.2d 773 (1969); see also Bebchick v. Washington Metro. Area Transit Comm'n, 485 F.2d 858, 860-61 (D.C.Cir.1973). In 1974, representatives of the bus riders sought to collect the restitution due them from condemnation proceeds belonging to D.C. Transit then under the control of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. In an order dated December 19, 1974, the district court distributed to D.C. Transit all but $1,461,756 of the condemnation proceeds, retaining that amount in an account until all appeals of the restitution award were settled. 5 This court assumed custody of the account containing the withheld condemnation proceeds, known as the Bebchick Fund, by order dated December 2, 1975. In 1979, all appeals of the restitution award became moot when D.C. Transit agreed that the bus riders were entitled to the Bebchick Fund as restitution for excessive fares it had charged them. By 1986, all issues regarding the restitution owed the bus riders in connection with the excessive fares in this case had been settled. See Bebchick v. Washington Metro. Area Transit Comm'n, 805 F.2d 396, 399-401 (D.C.Cir.1986). As of April 30, 1996, the Bebchick Fund contained $6,560,588.17. This court has never relinquished custody of the Bebchick Fund, nor has it ever appointed a trustee for the fund.