New York's plan for a new fleet of cabs from Nissan Motor Co. is legal, an appeals court ruled, overturning an earlier judgment that said the city's Taxi and Limousine Commission had overstepped its authority by requiring owners to buy a specific vehicle.

The so-called Taxi of Tomorrow program is a "legally appropriate response to the agency's statutory obligation to produce a 21st century taxicab consistent with the broad interests and perspectives that the agency is charged with protecting," Justice David B. Saxe wrote Tuesday for the appeals court in Manhattan.

Nissan won a contract in 2011 valued at $1 billion over 10 years to supply more than 15,000 minivans with sliding doors, more luggage space and air bags in the back, for the city's taxi fleet. The commission in September 2012 designated the Nissan NV200 as the official "Taxi of Tomorrow" and required owners of medallions, which confer the right to operate yellow cabs in New York, to buy the $29,700 vehicles.