"Cabbies sue Cincinnati airport over fees"

Wednesday, October 19, 2005
 
Cabbies sue airport over fees 
By James Pilcher
The Cincinnati (OH) Enquirer


A group of area taxi cab companies have sued the Kenton County Airport Board
and the cab company that now operates all taxis at the airport, alleging the
airport administration has not given a good accounting of potential refunds
from a fee that used to be collected per trip.

In the suit, filed last week in Boone County Circuit Court, the group of
nine cab companies say that they could be owed thousands if not hundreds of
thousands of dollars from the fees from the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky
International Airport and Community Cab Co., Inc. of Elsmere.

The fee was collected between 1990 to 2004 as a way to help pay for a
centralized dispatch system that called cabs as needed from an off-site
waiting area, or "bullpen," at the airport. Any taxi company wanting to
serve the airport would then pay for a permit and a fee per trip.

Community Cab operated that "starter system." In November 2004, Community
Cab took over all cab operations at the airport under a contract that pays
the airport $4,400 a month, or $52,800 a year. 
That move was made to create a more uniform and better quality of service
with the single-operator system, airport officials said at the time.

According to lawyers representing the companies that filed suit, any excess
fees were to be refunded to the individual cab companies serving the
airport, and that refunds were given through the early 1990s.

But then the refunds - and any accounting of where the fees went - stopped,
they say. The suit accuses the airport and Community Cab of fraud and breach
of contract, but does not specify specific damages since Kentucky civil
suits do not allow for such specificity.

"We want accountability for the money that was spent over the years, and
we've gotten nowhere," said Colleen Hegge, a Florence-based lawyer who is
one of two lawyers representing the plaintiffs.

Edith Brown, owner of Clifton-based Emerald Taxi, said that on average, her
taxis would make six trips a day from the airport, but said she has no idea
how much money she might be owed.

"I just want answers to where my money went," said Brown, whose company
currently operates seven cabs. "We had a contract, and they are not honoring
that contract."

Hegge said that the suit was not a way for the cab companies to express
their displeasure over the single-operator system now in place at the
airport.

"At the bottom of this is that we feel that there is a significant amount of
money owed to these cab drivers," she said.

Airport deputy director Dale Huber, who oversees the taxi system at the
airport, would not comment on the suit, saying he had not seen it.

Community Cab owner Tom Nicholas also would not comment, saying he had not
yet been notified of a lawsuit.


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