Delta Electric Power Ass'n v. Mississippi Power & Light Co.

149 So. 2d 504, 250 Miss. 482, 1963 Miss. LEXIS 537
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 11, 1963
DocketNo. 42535
StatusPublished
Cited by25 cases

This text of 149 So. 2d 504 (Delta Electric Power Ass'n v. Mississippi Power & Light Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Delta Electric Power Ass'n v. Mississippi Power & Light Co., 149 So. 2d 504, 250 Miss. 482, 1963 Miss. LEXIS 537 (Mich. 1963).

Opinion

Ethridge, J.

This case involves an order of the Mississippi Public Service Commission (called Commission), directing [495]*495Mississippi Power & Light Company (called Company) to cease and desist from rendering electric distribution service or street lighting service in a newly annexed area of the City of Winona, which was certificated by the Commission to Delta Electric Power Association (called Delta). The Mississippi Municipal Association was allowed to intervene. It supported the position of the Company.

The Company and Municipal Association appealed from the Commission’s order to the Chancery Court, First Judicial District óf Hinds County, which reversed it. That court held that Delta had no right to operate in the disputed area, and ordered Delta to cease and desist from doing so. It adjudicated that the Company’s municipal franchise, upon expansion of the city limits, extended into the newly incorporated area, and thereby superseded Delta’s certificate from the Commission, issued when the disputed area was outside the city limits.

The facts are without any substantial dispute. The issues are principally those of construction of Section 5 of the Public Utility Act of 1956, in the light of the facts and several prior decisions. Miss. Laws 1956, Ch. 372; Miss. Code 1942, Bee., Secs. 7716-01 to 7716-38. We conclude the Commission’s order was correct, reverse the decree of the Chancery Court, and reinstate and affirm the Commission’s issuance of a cease and desist order.

The precise issue is whether, under the Act, the expansion of the city limits extended Company’s service area into the annexed area, under its municipal franchise granted prior to the 1956 Act and before the expansion, and superseded the prior grandfather certificate to the annexed tract, granted by the Commission to Delta, which served the area before it came within the city limits. We think it did not, and that Delta’s certificate was properly protected by the Commission’s order.

[496]*496Both Delta and Company are public utilities engaged in the transmission and distribution of electricity, and subject to the Public Utility Act of 1956. Miss. Laws 1956, Ch. 372, Sec. ID. Delta is a Mississippi corporation organized and operating under the Electric Power Association Act of 1936. Miss. Laws 1936, Ch. 184; Miss. Laws 1938, Chs. 251-252; Miss. Code 1942, Rec., Secs. 5463-5489. It is vested with authority to operate electric services both within and without municipalities. Code Sec. 5474(8). It has the power of eminent domain. Sec. 5474(6) (14). Delta has the obligation and duty to render non-discriminatory service to all persons subscribing for it, who live in the areas served by that corporation. Capital Elec. Power Assn. v. McGuffee, 226 Miss. 227, 83 So. 2d 837 (1955). It operates in thirteen counties in the state.

Mississippi Power & Light Company, a subsidiary of Middle South Utilities, is incorporated under the laws of Florida, and qualified to do business in Mississippi. All of its property is located in this state, generally in the western one-half from the Tennessee to the Louisiana line.

Delta was incorporated in 1938. In 1940 it constructed an electric line in the vicinity of, but outside the west corporate limits, of the City of "Winona. There were no other electric lines in this area, and electric service was not then available to anyone in this rural area. Delta served the only two customers in it who desired electricity at that time. After it was made available, and as a result of this and other factors, this area west of the city limits slowly developed, over a period of years, and Delta obtained other customers. It served all of these additional customers.

. On February 23, 1948, the City of Winona granted a franchise to Mississippi Power & Light Company for electric service in that municipality, its streets and public places, “as they now exist or may hereafter be laid [497]*497out or extended.” This franchise was for a period of twenty-five years, so it expires in 1973. Since 1948 Company has been furnishing electric service in Winona tinder that franchise. During this same period and since 1940, Delta has been furnishing electric service to those desiring it in the disputed area which was west of the city limits prior to December 31, 1959.

In 1948 the City made a street lighting agreement with the Company, for five years, and renewable for similar additional periods unless either party elected to terminate it. That contract is still in effect.

The Public Utility Act became effective on March 29, 1956. Miss. Laws 1956, Ch. 372, Sec. 40. Before that date there was no statewide regulation by the Public Service Commission or any other state agency of the service areas, rates, or related operations of electric public utilities. Subject to certain limitations, the act vested “exclusive original jurisdiction” over these matters in the Commission. Ibid., Sec. 4.

Section 5(b) provides for grandfather or prior service certificates of convenience and necessity. It states that the Commission shall issue such a certificate to any person engaged in the operation of electric facilities and equipment “for the construction or operation then being conducted, without requiring proof that public convenience and necessity will be served by such construction or operation,” if the application was made within six months after the effective date of the act. Both Delta and the Company filed applications within the six months, and thereafter negotiated over a lengthy period for the purpose of agreeing on areas which they should recommend to the Commission for certification to Delta and Company, respectively. They agreed that the disputed area involved in this suit should be certificated to Delta and that certain other areas should be certificated to Company. Hence they submitted to the Commission a letter of agreement, and map showing [498]*498the recommended areas of agreement for prior service certificates.

On November 25, 1959, all of the disputed area involved in this suit was certificated to Delta. The Company was a party to that proceeding, did not appeal from it, and the Commission’s order, granting the grandfather certificate to Delta, became final. Delta has continued since that date to serve every electric customer in the area, including two street lights-for the City of Winona. Delta’s grandfather certificate from the Commission describes the disputed area involved in this suit by metes and bounds, and clearly covers it.

By an ordinance effective December 31, 1959, the City of Winona extended its corporate limits to the north, south, and . to the west. The disputed area here involved is part of the western expansion of the city limits, annexed on that date to the municipal boundaries of Winona.

In May, 1960 the Company, without any authorization from the Commission, constructed an electric line into the disputed area, previously certificated by the Commission to Delta, extended it to the Hightower property, and in June, 1960 constructed two prongs from this line in the disputed area for the purpose of serving street lights. No electric service was actually rendered to the Hightower property. The street lights were operated for several weeks, when the bulbs were removed.

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Bluebook (online)
149 So. 2d 504, 250 Miss. 482, 1963 Miss. LEXIS 537, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/delta-electric-power-assn-v-mississippi-power-light-co-miss-1963.