Renegade limo drivers lose round in court

A Clark County District Court judge has denied a preliminary injunction sought to put the brakes on the Nevada Transportation Services Authority.

But the attorneys who represented the Independent Limousine Owners/Operators Association left the courtroom encouraged, since Judge Mark Gibbons said he was concerned about the way the TSA and other state agencies not only establish rules, but enforce them and use their ability to collect fines to chill potential competition.

Deborah Simpson, lead attorney for the Washington-based nonprofit Institute for Justice, which is handling the ILO/OA case at no cost to the plaintiffs, unsuccessfully argued that Gibbons could appoint a magistrate to administer the TSA in the interim while the Nevada Legislature reconvened and determined a more equitable way to monitor the limousine industry.

The Institute for Justice legal staff contends the TSA discourages competition by impounding limousines and fining their owners without due process. Not only does the TSA draw the regulations, but it also has an enforcement staff that collects fines, which pay for the administration of the office.

That need for a revenue source encourages the TSA to track down limousine drivers that may be registered federally or out of state, especially since a potential licensee's competitors can become a party to the action as interveners in the licensing process.

ILO/OA officials say many limousine drivers have given up trying to be licensed because the paperwork is extensive and the timetable for approval is drawn out by potential competitors who can request and receive proprietary information about customers, business strategy and financial records.

In making his ruling on Monday, Gibbons said he had no authority to usurp the Nevada Legislature, which drew the TSA legislation in a last-minute bid to get some kind of law regulating the operation of limousines on the books. The intent of the law is to protect the public from companies that fail to deliver on transportation services.

Elected officials have been told stories about companies that abandon their riders to pick up more lucrative contracts.

But the TSA legislation was drawn late in the legislative session last summer. Even TSA Chairman John Mendoza has said the legislation was hurried and incomplete.

While Gibbons said he could not undo what the Legislature had done, nor prevent the governor's commission appointees from doing their jobs, he said as a citizen he had concerns about whether the TSA., as it currently operates, is fostering a competitive environment.

He also promised to expedite a bench trial involving AAA Limousine owner John West, who has been attempting to get Nevada certification from the TSA for nearly a year.

Gibbons said he could not grant the injunction because the request lacked evidence in support of the maneuver.

Following the hearing, Simpson said the filing was "a longshot going in" and that the ruling now opens the doors for trial preparation. It's in that stage, she said, that she would offer specific details on how much it has cost members of the ILO/OA to apply for certification. Some, she said, have spent in excess of $100,000 to get certified.

Senior Deputy Attorney General Sam Coon, who represented the TSA in the hearing, said the public needs to be protected from potential frauds and that the agency's ability to impound vehicles is the teeth it needs to enforce its regulations. Without a thorough certification process, he said the public could end up dealing with felons.

"Their association represents about 60 or 65 people," Coon told the judge. "But we have no idea who many of them are."

archive