LOS ANGELES : Judge Orders Halt to Plan to Increase Taxis in City

A judge Friday ordered the city of Los Angeles to halt consideration of a plan to increase the number of taxis in the city.

Superior Court Judge Robert H. O’Brien issued the temporary restraining order after Yellow Cab Co. maintained that the city plan jeopardized a 1992 settlement in which it agreed to pay Yellow Cab $12.75 million and to allow the firm to operate a 400-vehicle fleet. The city sets the number of taxis allowed to operate in its jurisdiction.

The target of Yellow Cab’s concern was a city request, issued in November, for local cab operators to propose ways for increasing the number of taxis in Los Angeles to better serve customers.

Putting more taxis on the street will undercut the value of Yellow Cab’s fleet, said Ira Reiner, an attorney for the taxi company. That fleet has still not gone into operation.

Reiner, a former district attorney, also criticized a recent city Transportation Commission decision to legalize 250 bandit cabs--formerly illegal cab operators, claiming this action also will adversely affect Yellow Cab’s settlement. Bell Cab Co. was granted permission to absorb the 250 bandit cabs in this action.

Yellow Cab did not ask O’Brien to block implementation of the bandit cab plan. But a possible challenge of that plan is being considered, said Ray Riley, another Yellow Cab attorney.

The 1992 Yellow Cab settlement involved litigation filed in the early 1980s. In that case, Yellow Cab alleged that city officials acted illegally when they stripped the firm of its franchise after it failed to end a labor strike with its drivers.