A.J. California Mini Bus, Inc. v. Airport Commission

ORDER GRANTING THE DEFENDANTS’ MOTION TO DISMISS THE PLAINTIFF’S COMPLAINT

Introduction

San Francisco International Airport (“SFO”) uses a zone system (essentially, dedicated areas) that shared-ride van services (such as the plaintiff Airport Express) must use to pick up and drop off passengers at the airport. (Complaint, ECF No. 1, ¶2. 1 ) Airport Express sued *907 the Airport Commission and SFO Airport Director John Martin for injunctive and declaratory relief, claiming that the zone system discriminates against' Airport Express in favor of certain of its competitors without any rational or legitimate basis for doing so, in violation of Airport Express’s substantive due-process and equal-protection rights under the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S, Constitution. (Id. ¶¶ 68-85.) The defendants moved to dismiss the complaint on two grounds: 1) the system has been in place for 20 years, and thus the lawsuit is untimely and barred by the two-year statute of limitations; and 2) the zone system is rationally related to legitimate government interests of controlling curbside crowding, traffic congestion, space allocation, and consumer access to van services, and thus the complaint…