A-OK Motor Lines, Inc. v. Alabama Public Service Commission

227 So. 2d 420, 284 Ala. 650, 1969 Ala. LEXIS 1160
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedSeptember 11, 1969
Docket3 Div. 249
StatusPublished

This text of 227 So. 2d 420 (A-OK Motor Lines, Inc. v. Alabama Public Service Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
A-OK Motor Lines, Inc. v. Alabama Public Service Commission, 227 So. 2d 420, 284 Ala. 650, 1969 Ala. LEXIS 1160 (Ala. 1969).

Opinion

COLEMAN, Justice.

This appeal is from a decree rendered by the circuit court on a statutory appeal to the circuit court from an order of the Public Service Commission.

The principal parties are A-OK Motor Lines, Inc., herein referred to as A-OK; Jack Cole Company, Inc., referred to as Cole; and AAA Motor Lines, Inc., referred to as AAA.

Cole and A-OK filed with the Commission proceedings to transfer from Cole to A-OK the right to serve certain cities in Alabama by transporting freight from one city to another. AAA became a protesting party to the transfer proceedings.

By order dated January 17, 1962, the Commission authorized the transfer from Cole to A-OK. The Commission’s order named the cities to and from which A-OK could haul freight, but the order did not state that A-OK had authority to haul freight to points outside the corporate limits but within the police jurisdiction of the named cities.

In Smith Transfer Co. v. Robins Transfer Co., 258 Ala. 406, 63 So.2d 351, it appears that this court decided that a certificate granting authority to transport freight to and from a named city does not grant authority to transport freight to and from a point which is outside the corporate limits but within the police jurisdiction of the named city. The grant of authority to serve a city does not include authority to serve points within the police jurisdiction unless the authority to serve points in the police jurisdiction is expressly granted in the certificate.

A-OK says that the transferor, Cole, had authority to serve the police jurisdiction of the named cities and that it was the intention of A-OK and Cole to transfer to A-OK the authority to serve points within the police jurisdiction; but, through inadvertence, authority to serve the police jurisdiction of the named cities was omitted [652]*652from the grant of authority transferred to A-OK.

On January 25, 1962, AAA appealed the January 17, 1962, order to the circuit court.

In December, 1962, AAA filed with the Commission a complaint charging that AOK was violating its authority by serving points outside the corporate limits of the named cities in violation of A-OK’s certificate. After a hearing on the complaint, the Commission found that A-OK was violating its authority by serving points outside the named cities but within their police jurisdiction. The Commission found that A-OK was serving points in the police jurisdictions under the impression that A-OK had authority to do so and was not acting in bad faith. By order dated October 22, 1963, the Commission ordered A-OK to cease and desist from transporting property to or from Ft. Ruck-er or any point not specifically authorized in A-OK’s certificate.

On October 31, 1963, A-OK filed with the Commission an application to amend its certificate so as to grant to A-OK authority to serve points in the police jurisdictions of the named cities and also Ft. Rucker. On January 9, 1964, after notice and hearing, the Commission ordered that A-OK’s certificate be amended to authorize A-OK to serve all points within the police jurisdiction of the cities already named in the certificate and also Ft. Rucker. The order recites that it is to be effective “* * * as of the date hereof.”

On August 23, 1965, without notice or hearing, two members of the Commission signed another order. As A-OK states in brief with reference to the August 23, 1965, order:

"* * * the Commission, in it’s (sic) ex parte Order (TR 197) amended nunc pro tunc its previous order in Docket No. 15118, (the order of January 17, 1962) by adding the ‘police jurisdiction’ authority to that authority which had been previously authorized to be transferred. * * (Italics Added)

In its Amendment to Order of the Commission on Attgust 23, 1965, the Commission states that a transfer of a designated point without including its police jurisdiction would be an unnatural separation of authority and contrary to the policy of the Commission; and that the error in the transfer renders it necessary for the Commission, on its own motion, to amend the order of January 17, 1962, to include the pc'.l e jurisdictions, due to the fact that, through inadvertence, the parties and the CcmmLsion overlooked the police jurisdiction authority when the transfer was effected in 1962.

It appears that no notice to AAA or anyone else, or hearing, preceded the order of August 23, 1965. Subsequently, on September 3, 1965, AAA filed with the Commission a motion to strike the order of August 23, 1965. As we understand the record, the Commission has not acted on the motion to strike.

The complaint proceeding; the proceeding culminating in the order of January 9, 1964, amending A-OK’s certificate; and the ex parte order of August 23, 1965, all occurred after AAA had appealed to the circuit court from the Commission’s order of January 17, 1962, and while the appeal was still pending and undisposed of in the circuit court.

In March, 1966, AAA filed in the circuit court a motion asking for certiorari to issue directing the Commission to send up to the circuit court all proceedings in the cause had before the Commission subsequent to the appeal. In the motion, AAA prays that all Commission proceedings subsequent to the appeal be quashed and held to be void. AAA avers that the Commission’s order of August 23, 1965, was made without notice to AAA, or other parties, and in violation of their rights to due process, the statutes of Alabama, and rules of the Commission.

[653]*653After hearing ore tenus on the motion to quash, the court decreed that the order of August 23, 1965, is null and void and the same is quashed and vacated.

In final decree, the court affirmed the Commission’s order of January 17, 1962. The order of January 9, 1964, is not mentioned in the decree.

A-OK appeals and complains of the action of the court in declaring void and vacating the Commission’s order of August 23, 1965.

On this appeal, AAA makes no objection to the order dated January 9, 1964, which granted to A-OK authority to serve the police jurisdictions. AAA does make objection to the order dated August 23, 1965, which also purports to grant to A-OK authority to serve the same police jurisdictions. As we understand it, AAA objects to the 1965 order because, if that order stands, A-OK’s police jurisdiction authority will date back to January 17, 1962; and, because of that date, A-OK will be able to obtain from the Interstate Commerce Commission certain authority to transport freight in interstate commerce. A-OK will not be able to obtain that interstate authority so easily, however, or perhaps not at all, if its police jurisdiction authority dates back only to January 9, 1964. A-OK and AAA are competitors, both seeking to obtain interstate freight business.

We will consider the errors assigned and argued by A-OK.

Assignment 3 recites:
“3. The Circuit Court erred in receiving additional evidence in connection with the ‘Amended Order of the Commission.’ ”
Assignment 3 does not point out any particular ruling of the trial court. It does not state concisely in what the error consists and is entirely too general. Supreme Court Rule 1. See Thompson v. State, 267 Ala. 22, 25, 99 So.2d 198, where the court held inadequate an assignment as follows:
“ ‘6.

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Related

Alabama Public Service Commission v. Redwing Carriers, Inc.
199 So. 2d 653 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1967)
Thompson v. State
99 So. 2d 198 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1957)
Smith Transfer Co. v. Robins Transfer Co.
63 So. 2d 351 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1953)
Alabama Electric Cooperative, Inc. v. Alabama Power Co.
214 So. 2d 851 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1968)

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Bluebook (online)
227 So. 2d 420, 284 Ala. 650, 1969 Ala. LEXIS 1160, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/a-ok-motor-lines-inc-v-alabama-public-service-commission-ala-1969.