Court Opinion

ID: 9684898
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 14:18:16.594867+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:01.015275
License: Public Domain

*594J. H. Gillis, J.
Plaintiff Nortliville Coach Lines, Inc., and its predecessor have conducted bus service from Nortliville, via Livonia, to Detroit and return, since 1932. This service has been operated under the appropriate orders and certification of the Michigan public service commission under the provisions of the Michigan motor carrier act, CL 1948 and CLS 1961, § 475.1 et seq., as amended, (Stat Ann and Stat Ann 1963 Cum Supp § 22.531 ei seq.).
The defendant city of Detroit acquired a system of transportation lines in 1922 and since then has operated bus lines both within and outside its corporate limits through a municipally owned public utility now called the department of street railways (DSR).
On August 10, 1964, defendant extended its route to include a newly constructed shopping center near the northwesterly corner of Seven Mile and Middle-belt roads in Livonia. This route extended via the city of Dearborn, city of Dearborn Heights, and city of Garden City into a part of Livonia which it had not serviced previously.
Both the Nortliville Coach Lines service and the DSR service extended along Seven Mile road.
Concurrent with the extension of service by the DSR, Nortliville instituted this cause in the "Wayne county circuit court, asking a determination that Detroit was not authorized to undertake the expansion of service without application to and receipt of authority from the Michigan public service commission, and an injunction.
Plaintiff intervenor, Michigan Motor Bus Association, a group of privately owned and operated motor carriers, operating in various localities of the State, appeared as amicus curiae.
Following hearings, the court held that the DSR’s operations as a motor carrier in the area involved *595outside its corporate boundaries were authorized by the home-rule act (PA 1909, No 279, as amended [CL 1948 and CLS 1961, § 117.1 et seq., as amended, (Stat Ann 1949 Rev and Stat Ann 1963 Cum Supp §5.2071 et seq.)]), and that such operations were exempt from the provisions of the Michigan motor carrier act. Judgment was entered December 21, 1964, dismissing the complaint. A claim of appeal was filed with the Supreme Court and subsequently transferred to this Court by order dated January 4, 1965.
Plaintiffs, at the outset of their argument, point out that they do not seek to prohibit absolutely the defendant’s motor carrier operations outside its boundaries, but only to subject them to the same provisions of the motor carrier act as apply to plaintiffs. That act authorizes the Michigan public service commission to grant the requisite operating-authority whenever required by “public convenience and necessity.” Thus, they conclude, if, as defendant claims, there were a public need for additional transportation service in Livonia, defendant would have the same opportunity to meet such need as plaintiff.
In essence, Northville challenges the right of the DSR to operate outside the city of Detroit into Livonia, serving the same areas it serves without coming within the purview of the rules that apply to it.
No case is cited by either side which would be decisive in the matter. The entire outcome of the cause rises or falls upon the interpretation of the Constitution and statutes which govern. Our Constitution does not exempt an operation such as that of the DSR from the provisions of statutory law. In Const 1963, art 7, § 24, it is provided that transportation may be provided to the municipality and *596the inhabitants thereof, but more in point, further goes on to say:
“Services outside corporate limits. Any city or village * * * may operate transportation lines outside the municipality within such limits as may be prescribed by law.” (Emphasis supplied.)
What, then, has been “prescribed by law?” The home-rule act, supra, section 4f, provides:
“Each city may in its charter provide: * * *
(2) For owning, constructing and operating transportation facilities within its limits, and its adjacent and adjoining suburbs within a distance of 10 miles from any portion of its city limits.” (Emphasis supplied.)
There is no dispute but that the service under consideration falls within the 10-mile limitation. The issue here is whether or not the DSN is authorized under the home-rule act, supra, and under the provisions of the charter of the city of Detroit to operate a bus line in a municipality which is not contiguous to its corporate limits. This Court’s decision must turn on the construction of the term “adjacent and adjoining” as found in section 4f(2) of the home-rule act, supra.
Plaintiffs supply dictionary definitions of adjacent, of adjoining, and of words synonymous with these two terms. Case law, too, is furnished by plaintiffs to support their contention that “adjacent and adjoining” mean suburbs joined to Detroit physically, an interpretation which would automatically rule out Livonia. The trial court departed from plaintiff’s interpretation and held that the home-rule act did not limit operation of transportation facilities by a municipality in any respect other than to restrict such operations to a distance of 10 *597miles from the city limits. The trial court based its opinion on section 4f(3) of the home-rule act which provides:
“Each city may in its charter provide: # * *
(3) * * * and for the operation of transportation lines without the municipality and within 10 miles from its corporate limits.”
Most significantly, the adjectives “adjacent and adjoining” do not appear in subparagraph (3). The trial judge, in his opinion, states:
“Had the legislature desired to limit such operations to the adjacent and adjoining suburbs only, it would have specifically applied that limitation, to permissible charter provisions in paragraph 3 as well as in paragraph 2.”
"With this conclusion we do not agree. If the legislature intended to permit a municipally owned transportation system to operate anywhere within a 10-mile radius of its city limits, there was no need to include the adjectives “adjacent and adjoining” in the language of subparagraph (2). Without these adjectives, this present extension of service by the DSR would clearly be authorized. It is not a question of why didn’t the legislature include the adjectives in subparagraph (3) but why did they use them in subparagraph (2). The terms adjacent and adjoining as used in this act are construed to mean having a common boundary.
Subparagraph (2) deals solely with permissible charter provisions concerning transportation facilities, whereas subparagraph (3) deals with a multitude of subjects including the purchase and condemnation of private property for public use.
The legislative intent relative to whether or not a municipal transportation system can extend itself into noncontiguous suburbs within a 10-mile limit *598should he discerned from that portion of the act which deals most specifically with the situation.
Thus, this Court is compelled to resolve the issue by reference to subparagraph (2), not unmindful of its seeming inconsistency with subparagraph (3). It is not to be supposed that any section of a statute was inserted with no intelligible purpose. See People, ex rel. Bristol, v. Board of Supervisors of Ingham County (1870), 20 Mich 95.
Since there is intervening noncontiguous space between Detroit and Livonia, the requirement of the home-rule act, supra,- has not been satisfied.
Defendant contends that it is exempt from the provisions of the Michigan public service commission act, CLS 1961, § 460.1 et seq. (Stat Ann 1963 Cum Supp § 22.13[1] et seq.) and the Michigan motor carrier act, supra, and therefore its extension of DSE service into Livonia is not and cannot be subject to regulation by the public service commission.
With this contention we agree. The DSE is not subject to the jurisdiction of the public service commission. It need not seek the approval of the commission for any action it might lawfully undertake. The point remains that the DSE, as a municipally owned transportation system, may only do that which the home-rule act permits. Its authority to do or not to do any particular act is governed by our Constitution as limited by the provisions of the home-rule act. This act only permits the Detroit department of street railways to operate in suburbs that touch upon the city limits of Detroit.
It may well be that modern day urban needs cannot adequately be met in these circumstances, but this problem is one of legislative concern and cannot be considered a relevant issue in this Court.
*599Judgment reversed and the case remanded to the circuit court for entry of an order enjoining the DSK. from extending its operation into the city of Livonia and such further relief as the circuit court deems appropriate in accordance with this opinion. No costs, a public question being involved.
Lesinski, C. J., concurred with J. H. G-illis, J.