Opinion ID: 319871
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: the license fee issue

Text: 22 As a fee for extending Southern's certificate authority, the Board assessed Southern $12,000. 24 This assessment was made pursuant to section 389.25 of the Board regulations, which provides that a license fee shall be paid 'by each carrier which, pursuant to its application, is issued a certificate or has its certificate amended, modified, renewed, or transferred . . ..' 25 In a letter to the Board's managing director dated 21 May 1973, Southern protested that it had already paid the maximum license fee provided by the regulations, $25,000, in connection with the 1969 proceedings. Since the Board's 1973 Order granted Southern essentially the same authority as that awarded in 1969, Southern argued, it would violate the Board's regulations to impose an additional fee. 26 In a letter dated 20 June 1973 the Board informed Southern that its motion for waiver or modification of the license fee had been rejected by an equally divided Board. 27 The letter explained the rejection of Southern's motion with the following statement: 23 The Board is unable to accept Southern's interpretation of the license fee regulations. To begin with, the regulations provide for imposition of a fee each time a carrier's certificate is 'modified' or 'amended' and it is clear that Order 73-2-90 amended Southern's certificate. Thus, the imposition of the license fee falls within the literal terms of the Board's regulations. Moreover, since the essential purpose of the license fee regulations is to enable the Government to recover a portion of its expenses, imposition of the license fee following a wholly new evidentiary proceeding would be consistent with that basic purpose. 28 24 Since the Board's interpretation of its license fee regulation appears to us not unreasonable, we must defer to that interpretation and not upset the license fee assessment against Southern. 29