Western Air Lines, Inc. v. Civil Aeronautics Board

This is a petition by Western Air Lines, Inc. to review an order of the Civil Aeronautics Board made on January 17, 1952, which ordered the following, inter alia: •

The Board order here in question is a step in the determination of the difficult problem of certificating proper air service for the Southern California-Arizona local area which has been before the Board for over ten years in a proceeding called the California-Nevada Service Case. The history of this problem is set out in the Examiner’s Report, appended to the order here in question,-C.A.B.-, at-.

Suffice it to say for this decision that Western, a trunk line operating under a permanent certificate, had been given authority in 1943 to serve El Centro, California, and in 1946 to serve Yuma, Arizona. This authority was suspended by the order here in question until December 31, 1952, the date that the life of Bonanza Airlines, a temporarily certificated carrier, expires, or until the Board should finally determine a timely application by Bonanza for an extension of its temporary certificate. Concurrent with Western’s suspension, at El Centro and Yuma, Bonanza was given authority to serve those cities under its temporary…

(concurring).

I concur in the result. I am, though, impressed with the showing made that the Board’s orders impose an undue burden on Western. However, unless the orders of administrative boards and agencies are clearly illegal courts must not interfere with them. I am not convinced that the changes ordered are so unreasonable as to amount to lack of due process or that the orders are otherwise legally bad.

196 F.2d 933 WESTERN AIR LINES, Inc. v. CIVIL AERONAUTICS BOARD. No. 13245. United States Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit. May 19, 1952. Guthrie, Darling & Shattuck, Los Angeles, Cal., for petitioner, Western Air Lines, Inc. Reginald S. Laughlin, San Francisco, Cal., John T. Lorch, Floyd M. Rett, Henry L. Hill, Chicago, Ill. (Treadwell & Laughlin, San Francisco, Cal., and Mayer, Meyer, Austrian & Platt, Chicago, Ill., of counsel), for amicus curiae United Air Lines, Inc. G. Robert Henry, Las Vegas, Nev., for intervener, Bonanza Air Lines, Inc. Winston C. Black, San Francisco, Cal., Wheeler & Scoutt, Washington, D.C., for amicus curiae, Mid-West Airlines, Inc., and Wisconsin Central Airlines, Inc. H. G. Morison, Asst. Atty. Gen., J. Roger Wollenberg, Sp. Asst. to the Atty. Gen., John H. Wanner, Associate Gen. Counsel, Civil Aeronautics Board, Oral D. Ozment, Atty., Civil Aeronautics Board, Emory T. Nunneley, Jr., Gen. Counsel, Civil Aeronautics Board, James L. Highsaw, Jr., Chief, Litigation and Research Division, Civil Aeronautics Board, Washington, D.C., for respondent. Before DENMAN, Chief Judge, and STEPHENS and BONE, Circuit Judges. DENMAN, Chief Judge. 1 This…