Trans World Airlines, Inc. v. City & County of San Francisco

Plaintiff is a corporation which in the course of its business utilizes land and facilities so that its airplanes may land, take off, and be serviced and stored.

Defendant, represented by its Public Utilities Commission, business operator of the San Francisco Airport, in 1942 entered into a 20-year lease agreement with the plaintiff to furnish the land and facilities so used.

Twice during the life of this lease between the parties litigant, the Public Utilities Commission of the City regulated and prescribed rates which plaintiff and the other airlines were to pay for using the airport.

The rates prescribed by the Public Utilities Commission were higher than the rates fixed by the lease of plaintiff and defendant. Plaintiff refused, and still refuses to pay these higher rates, insisting that the limits of its liability are the charges fixed by the lease. Defendant has advised plaintiff that it must pay under the schedule of rates and charges, and that in default of such payments the airline will be deprived of certain facilities at the airport. This action for declaratory relief followed.

The City contends that the rates in the schedules are enforceable only as they apply to…