Alaska Airlines, Inc. v. Department of Food & Agriculture

This is an appeal from a summary judgment ordering the California Department of Food and Agriculture (the Department) to return service charges collected from the respondent airlines and enjoining the Department from collecting such charges in the future.

Introduction

The service charges were levied pursuant to the California Airport and Maritime Plant Quarantine, Inspection, and Plant Protection Act (the Act) which has as its laudable purpose “inspection of conveyances entering California through airport and maritime facilities to prevent the introduction into, or the spread within . . . [California] ... of pests.” (Food & Agr. Code, § 5350, subd. (a).)

The Act, adopted in 1990 as an urgency measure in response to the 1989-1990 Mediterranean fruit fly infestation and codified as Food and Agricultural Code sections 5350-5353, authorizes the Director of the Department of Food and Agriculture (the Director) to identify and establish a list of foreign countries which the Director believes are potential sources of exotic plant or animal pests. Conveyances, i.e., aircraft or ships, arriving from such locations and carrying animals, plants or other materials which are, or…