Franke v. Johnstown Fuel Supply Co.

70 Pa. Super. 446, 1918 Pa. Super. LEXIS 275
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedOctober 30, 1918
DocketAppeal, No. 111
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 70 Pa. Super. 446 (Franke v. Johnstown Fuel Supply Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Franke v. Johnstown Fuel Supply Co., 70 Pa. Super. 446, 1918 Pa. Super. LEXIS 275 (Pa. Ct. App. 1918).

Opinion

Opinion by

Henderson, J.,

This is an appeal by the Peoples Natural Gas Company from an order of the Public Service Commission requiring the appellant to file its tariff and schedule of rates covering its service in supplying natural gas to the Johnstown Fuel Supply Company, a corporation engaged in the furnishing of natural gas in the City of J ohnstown. The proceeding originated in an increase of its rates of service by the latter company and the protests filed by certain of the patrons of that company against such increase. At the hearing before the commission on the proposal to increase the rates the fact was developed that the J ohnstown company received its supply of natural gas from the Peoples Natural Gas Company; whereupon, the latter company was summoned [451]*451by the commission to appear in the case. That notice having been complied with, the last named company filed its answers to the complaints in the proceeding, denying the jurisdiction of the Public Service Commission to make an order affecting the Peoples Natural Gas Company. After further proceedings before the commission the answer of the Peoples Natural Gas Company was overruled and the order made from which this appeal was taken. The record of the Public Service Commission having been filed in this court a motion was made by the appellees to dismiss the appeal on the ground that the order complained of was interlocutory and that the appellant was not entitled to be heard until a final determination was made in the complaints against the Johnstown Fuel Supply Company. A preliminary inquiry is thus raised as to the regularity of the appeal, the contention of the movers for its dismissal being that the parties to such a proceeding can only be heard on an appeal to the Superior Court after the whole case is disposed of by the Public Service Commission in analogy to the practice in appeals from judgments and decrees of courts of law and equity. The position taken by the appellant is that the only action of the commission affecting it is the order appealed from and that it is in no way interested in, or a party to, the proceeding relating to the increase of rates by the Johnstown Fuel Supply Company. It becomes very clear from an examination of the statute creating the Public Service Commission and declaring the jurisdiction thereof and the procedure to be observed in proceedings to be brought before that body as well as in the declaration of the form in which its conclusions shall be made that it is not a court of law. It has quasi judicial functions but they are administrative in character and its jurisdiction must be found in the statute which brought it into existence and its amendments: W. Va. Pulp and Paper Company v. Public Service Commission, 61 Pa. Superior Ct. 555. The right of appeal is therefore necessarily statutory [452]*452and the conditions under which this right may be exercised are to be found in the provision for such appeals. The Act of 1913 as amended by the Act of 1915, P. L. 779, provides that: “Within thirty days after the filing of any finding or determination by the commission or at the date of the service of any order — unless an application for a rehearing may be pending and then within thirty days after the refusal of such application — or the entry of an order modifying, amending, rescinding or affirming the original finding, determination or order any party to the proceedings affected thereby may appeal therefrom to the Superior Court.” It will be seen that the thing to be appealed from is a “finding” or “determination” or “order” of the commission and that the party having a right to an appeal is one “affected thereby.” It is obvious when we consider the general scope of the powers of the Public Service Commission under the statute that numerous parties might be involved in one proceeding and that various findings or determinations or orders might be made affecting one or all of such parties. It would result in many cases that there would be no final order affecting all the parties alike. The various circumstances of the parties and their relation to the matters in controversy would require appropriate action of the commission as suggested by such circumstances and relations. And this was evidently in contemplation in the use of the terms employed in the enactment. There being no community of interest in many instances the action to be appealed from in each case would be that affecting the party taking the appeal. There is no obscurity in the language used and when it is declared in a statute that any order of the commission may be appealed from “within thirty days after it is filed, by any person affected thereby” we do not find room for doubt that this was intended to give to any party involved in the proceeding a right of appeal without regard to the determination of the case as to other parties. The fact that the control of corporations givefi to the [453]*453Public Service Commission bad theretofore been exercised by courts of law does not compel the conclusion that the procedure observed in such courts followed the jurisdiction. The pending case is an illustration of the reasonableness of the conclusion suggested. The appellant was not an original party to the proceeding. The only order affecting it requires it to file a schedule of rates. Compliance with that order might end the proceeding so far as the appellant is concerned. There is no issue joined in which the appellant must necessarily participate. The present appeal raises the whole question of the appellant’s responsibility and of the jurisdiction of the commission to compel it to comply with the order. The order may or may not be interlocutory but it is not obviously so. No subsequent proceeding necessarily follows compliance by the appellant with the determination of the commission. Where a statute gives an appeal after the filing of a decree or where the pleadings in a proceeding in equity call for a definitive decree as in Sinking Spring Water Co. v. Gring, 257 Pa. 340, purely interlocutory action of the court will not support an appeal. But the statute here gives an appeal from a finding, determination or decree which prejudicially affects a party and the appellant we think is now entitled to a review of the case against it.

Two objections are presented to the action of the Public Service Commission: 1. That the Peoples Natural Gas Company is not a public service company nor subject to the provisions of the Public Service Company Law with respect to the sale of natural gas to the Johns-town Fuel Supply Company; and, 2. That “what the Peoples Natural Gas Company does is interstate commerce and beyond the power of the commission.” The Peoples Natural Gas Company is a Pennsylvania corporation chartered under the Act of May 29,1885, P. L. 29. The statute authorizes the incorporation of such companies for the purpose of producing, dealing in, transporting and storing and supplying natural gas to such [454]*454persons, corporations or associations within convenient connecting distance of its line of pipe as may desire to use the same.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

York v. Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission
295 A.2d 825 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1972)
York v. Public Utility Commission
281 A.2d 261 (Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, 1971)
George Hyam Associates, Inc. v. Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission
184 A.2d 414 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1962)
Texas Eastern Transmission Corp. v. Rankin
79 Pa. D. & C. 589 (Fayette County Court, 1951)
Borough of Johnsonburg v. Public Service Commission
98 Pa. Super. 284 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1929)
Peoples Natural Gas Co. v. Public Service Commission
123 A. 799 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1924)
Peoples Natural Gas Co. v. Public Service Commission
79 Pa. Super. 560 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1922)
Pennsylvania-New Jersey Railway Co. v. Ellin
1 Pa. D. & C. 175 (Bucks County Court of Common Pleas, 1921)
Citizens' Passenger Railway Co. v. Public Service Commission
75 Pa. Super. 238 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1920)
City of Erie v. Public Service Commission
74 Pa. Super. 265 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1920)
Cambria Steel Co. v. Johnstown Fuel Supply Co.
70 Pa. Super. 464 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1918)
Fayette County Gas Co. v. Public Service Commission
70 Pa. Super. 472 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1918)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
70 Pa. Super. 446, 1918 Pa. Super. LEXIS 275, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/franke-v-johnstown-fuel-supply-co-pasuperct-1918.