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Lloyde A. England sank onto the wooden bench in a D.C. courtroom as the last major asset of the company he joined in 1959 went to the highest bidder.

The logo, colors and radio-dispatch system of Capitol Cab Cooperative Association Inc., started by black cabbies in the 1930s, sold for $58,000.

Capitol Cab's logo will continue to zip around the city, but under new ownership.

"Now I've got to change my colors," said England, 70, as he stared down at the cowboy hat on his knee.

The ruling by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge S. Martin Teel Jr. marked the end of an era for England and his colleagues, who ...

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Messy End of an Institution
Capitol Cab's Name Sold in Bankruptcy Proceedings

By Krissah Williams
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, February 2, 2004; Page E03

Lloyde A. England sank onto the wooden bench in a D.C. courtroom as the last major asset of the company he joined in 1959 went to the highest bidder.

The logo, colors and radio-dispatch system of Capitol Cab Cooperative Association Inc., started by black cabbies in the 1930s, sold for $58,000.
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Capitol Cab's logo will continue to zip around the city, but under new ownership.

"Now I've got to change my colors," said England, 70, as he stared down at the cowboy hat on his knee.

The ruling by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge S. Martin Teel Jr. marked the end of an era for England and his colleagues, who paid monthly dues in exchange for shares in the company. They have been bonded most of their adult lives by the orange stripe and the white picture of the Capitol building painted on their black cabs.

The cab company was a product of segregation, but by 1965 it was one of the largest cab companies in the country, with 1,565 members. In those days, England saw driving as the road to entrepreneurship. So did his friend and fellow Capitol Cab member John T. Bugg, who said, "I could have gotten a job, but I wouldn't have gotten nothing but work."

From its Northeast Washington headquarters, the association provided members with repairs, gasoline, auto loans and 24-hour radio dispatch. But in the 1990s the company outgrew the management abilities of its leaders, some members said. The tipping point was a $1 million investment in an insurance company, which failed. By 2001, Capitol Cab could no longer pay its bills.

The company filed for bankruptcy. Two years later its leaders hadn't come up with a plan for profitability. Last spring the bankruptcy court appointed lawyer Wendell W. Webster to sell assets to pay debts, which at the time totaled $2.8 million.

The headquarters sold for $3 million last year, but the company had continued to lose money and accrued taxes and other expenses from the sale of its assets, Webster said.

Capitol Cab was destroyed as much by political infighting as by financial problems, some members said. England and Bugg, who head Capitol Cab's unsecured creditors committee, have accused the company's elected leadership of financial irregularities -- an allegation that they were not able to prove in court during three years of bankruptcy proceedings, and which fellow Capitol Cab driver William Wright, 81, and other elected leaders of the cooperative deny.

"We were real successful for a while," Wright said. "Things started going bad. We had politics within the organization. The insurance company [failed.] That's the way it happened."

Last week, Bugg and England faced off against Wright for what is likely the last time. Wright won.

Wright, two dozen former Capitol Cab drivers and First Washington Insurance Co. bought the rights to the Capitol Cab name, according to court documents. First Washington is owned by Jerry Schaeffer, a white businessman who operates a number of large D.C. cab companies, including District Cab. Bugg and England said they are considering an appeal.

Unlike the Capitol Cab of old, the new company will be owned in a more conventional business arrangement by Wright and the other investors. Pending approval of the sale by regulators, many of the 100 or so men still driving cabs with the insignia will have to pay Wright to use its name.

"We'll continue on," Wright said. "We know we have a good name. We can regroup."

Anthony Williams, 70, a jewelry store owner who drove for Capitol Cab when he was a Howard University student, called the end of the cooperative a "downright disgrace." Williams and his cousin William Gray, also a former driver, failed to outbid Wright for rights to the company's name and logo. Wright initially bid $15,000. Gray and Williams thought that was too low. They started a bidding war last week that drove the price up.

Bugg and England were left having to pay their old enemies a fee, or drop the logo.

"You're going to turn around and look at these black men and say 'I'm going to take the colors off your car?' " Bugg said.

He and England are trying to come up with a new name and color scheme -- maybe blue over the orange band.

Standing next to England's Capitol Cab No. 677 after the bankruptcy proceeding, he and Bugg say they'll keep on driving.

"We don't have anything but our cars," England said.

Craig Ranke CIT

Aug 6 2009, 11:01 PM

So....in 2004 the entire Capital Cab company was sold for $58,000.

Yet in 2008 Lloyde England boasted to me about his $50,000 truck and took me to his 30 acres of extra property in the country to go see his old cab preserved under a tarp.

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Capitol Bid Committee is a private company categorized under Taxicabs and located in Washington, DC. Our records show it was established in 2003 and incorporated in District of Columbia. Current estimates show this company has an annual revenue of $78,000 and employs a staff of approximately 4.

Also Does Business As Capital Cab

http://www.manta.com/company/mmgh06z

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Organization Name: CAPITAL CAB FOUNDATION, INC.
State: DC
Status: REVOKED
Initial Date of Registration: 12/21/1988
File No.: 884749
Organization Type: DOMESTIC NON PROFIT CORPORATION

TYRONE ROBINSON
1033 3RD ST., N.E.
Washington, DC 20002

http://mblr.dc.gov/corp/lookup/status.asp?id=158652

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Organization Name: CAPITAL CAB TRANSPORTATION COMPANY, LLC
State: DC
Status: REVOKED
Initial Date of Registration: 12/23/2003
File No.: L17206
Organization Type: DOMESTIC LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY

Registered Agent
BRADSHAW ROST
6409 33RD STREET, NW
Washington, DC 20015

http://mblr.dc.gov/corp/lookup/status.asp?id=224635

CraigRankeCIT

 

his old cab preserved under a tarp.