Driver's Sue to Stop MTA from Killing the Waiting List

Cab Drivers Bill Mounsey (photo), Iza Pardinas and Jeffrey Grove along with the United Taxicab Workers and the San Francisco Cab Drivers Association filed suit against the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) to prohibit the SFMTA from legislating a Taxi Medallion Transfer Program pursuant to Resolution 12-110 and to compel the issuance of taxi medallions to Plaintiffs and other qualified taxi drivers on the medallion applicants’ Waiting List.

The Plaintiffs argue that the Resolution:

1. is an unconstitutional legislative act by an administrative agency;
2. is an unconstitutional tax and otherwise unconstitutional and unlawful means of generating revenue for the City and County of San Francisco (CCSF) and the SFMTA’s general fund;
3. that the SFMTA unlawfully has transferred or intends to transfer medallions to the detriment of qualified applicants on the Waiting List;
4. that the Plaintiffs have been or will be unlawfully deprived of taxi medallions - and the economic or other benefits possession of a medallion provides - on account of the Resolution’s and defendants’ unlawful actions and the representations and promises made to them. 

The Complaint goes on that “the SFMTA and CCSF are in violation of the Constitutions of the United States and the State of California, the Charter of CCSF and applicable City ordinances, regulations and regulatory decisions, have acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner and in excess and abuse of regulatory authority and have wrongfully induced taxi drivers on the Waiting List to rely to their detriment and financial harm on a long established system which SFMTA now unlawfully refuses to administer.”

More later