Opinion
Nos. 7411, 7412.
Decided December 4, 1939.
Appeals from the District Court of the United States for the District of Columbia.
Suit by W.W. Chambers, trading as W.W. Chambers Company against Melvin C. Hazen, David McCoach, Jr., members of the Board of Commissioners of the District of Columbia, William A. Van Duzer Director of Vehicles and Traffic for the District of Columbia, and Wade H. Coombs, Superintendent of Licenses for the District of Columbia, to enjoin the defendants from requiring plaintiff in order to obtain licenses for automobiles used by him in undertaking business, to comply with statute. From an order granting the injunction as to ambulances, the defendants appeal; and from an order denying the injunction as to funeral cars, the plaintiffs appeal.
Order granting injunction reversed, and order denying injunction affirmed.
Elwood H. Seal, Corp. Counsel, Vernon E. West, Principal Asst. Corp. Counsel, and James W. Lauderdale, Asst. Corp. Counsel, all of Washington, D.C., for appellants in No. 7411, and for appellees in No. 7412.
Joseph B. Danzansky and William R. Lichtenberg, both of Washington, D.C., for appellee in No. 7411, and for appellant in No. 7412.
Before GRONER, Chief Justice, and MILLER and EDGERTON, Associate Justices.
An undertaker owns "funeral cars" in which, without separate charge, he carries persons attending funerals. He also owns ambulances, and carries persons in them for a fee which he says is not compensatory. He sued to enjoin officials from requiring him, in order to obtain licenses for all these cars, to comply with this statute: "Owners of passenger vehicles for hire, whether operated from a private establishment or from public space, other than those licensed in the two preceding paragraphs, shall pay a license tax of $25 per annum for each such vehicle used in the conduct of their business. * * *" D.C. Code, Supp. IV, Tit. 20, § 1731(d). The trial court denied an injunction as to funeral cars but granted one as to ambulances. It was clearly right as to the funeral cars. Cave v. District of Columbia, 67 App.D.C. 138, 90 F.2d 383; Lauer v. District of Columbia, 11 App.D.C. 453. But we cannot agree as to the ambulances. Sick or well, one who is carried, for hire, through the streets in a vehicle kept and driven by another for such purposes seems to us to be a passenger in the ordinary sense of the word. Whether the hire is greater or less than the cost of the service is not material. Unless a restricted meaning is to be given to the word "passenger" in this statute, it follows that these ambulances are "passenger vehicles for hire." We see no reason for giving the word a restricted meaning. In fact, there is excellent reason for not doing so, since § 1731(e) of the Code defines by reference to the quoted section those vehicles whose drivers are required to have "character" licenses and display numbered badges. These requirements seem at least as appropriate to ambulance drivers, who carry helpless passengers, as to cab drivers.
No. 7411 reversed.
No. 7412 affirmed.