In Re Delaware Sports Service

196 A.2d 215, 57 Del. 1, 7 Storey 1, 1963 Del. Super. LEXIS 161
CourtSuperior Court of Delaware
DecidedAugust 6, 1963
Docket1321
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 196 A.2d 215 (In Re Delaware Sports Service) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Delaware primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In Re Delaware Sports Service, 196 A.2d 215, 57 Del. 1, 7 Storey 1, 1963 Del. Super. LEXIS 161 (Del. Ct. App. 1963).

Opinion

Stiftel, Judge.

*3 Appeal from an order of the Public Service Commission which refused to direct the Diamond State Telephone Company to continue its telephone service to the Delaware Sports Service.

The following facts are not in dispute:

The Delaware Sports Service has been located in Wilmington, Delaware, for more than a decade. Its only reason for existence is to supply “flash race track results” to its customers. Generally, its method of operation is to place an employee inside a race track who instantaneously communicates, by visual device, such as hand signals, or by radio, with an employee outside the race track who has an open telephone line to relay the information he acquires to Delaware Sports Service in Wilmington. For many years Delaware Sports Service, or its predecessor in name, Delaware Wired Music, supplied instantaneous detailed information on each race to the Wilmington headquarters but in recent years only the name of the winner of each race has been supplied. However, any customer on the open line from the race track through the Wilmington switchboard was able to determine the time the horses left the post and the time the horses finished the race.

A person became a customer of Delaware Sports Service by telephoning the Wilmington office and asking the operator of Delaware Sports Service what Delaware Sports Service had available. The customer was told that he was entitled to the name of the unofficial winner of the race for $20; of two races for $30; and *4 of five races for $50. The money was payable in advance by sending a Western Union money order telegram to Delaware Sports Service. The customer seldom, used his own name when calling Delaware Sports Service for the results. When a person would call for results, the switchboard operator would immediately check her records so as to determine whether or not the money order had been transmitted in advance. If so, she would give the customer the immediate result, which was usually no more than one to three minutes after the race was run and sometimes sooner.

For many years the Attorney General’s office had attempted to terminate the business of the Delaware Sports Service. After an unsuccessful attempt to terminate this business through the courts in 1949, Tollin v. State, 7 Terry 120, 78 A.2d 810, the Legislature, on the recommendation of the then Attorney General, enacted certain statutes which the Attorney General hoped to use to eliminate businesses of this nature. 1

The present nhase started in 1959. On October 13, 1959, the Attorney General sent a letter to the Diamond State Telephone Company requesting it to discontinue its service to Sports Service; whereupon Diamond State no- *5 tiified Delaware Sports Service of its intention to discontinue telephone service to it pursuant to Title 11 Delaware Code, Sec. 675.

Shortly after the receipt of the Diamond State letter, Sports Service filed an action, on October 22, 1959, in the Court of Chancery, praying that Diamond State be enjoined from discontinuing its telephone service, contending that Sec. 675 of Title 11 Delaware Code was unconstitutional.

On September 8, I960, the Court of Chancery ruled Section 675 unconstitutional because it failed to provide *6 an opportunity to the telephone subscriber for a hearing, and the Court enjoined Diamond State from terminating plaintiff’s present telephone service prior to a hearing presumably before the Commission on the uses to which plaintiff put such service. See Tollin v. Diamond State Telephone Co., Del.Ch., 164 A.2d 254-, Thereafter, the Attorney General again requested the Telephone Company to discontinue telephone service to Sports Service. Whereupon, Diamond State notified Sports Service that it would terminate its telephone service unless Sports Service filed a petition with the Public Service Commission by a certain date. Sports Service filed a petition with the Public Service Commission seeking to prohibit the telephone company from terminating its services. As a preliminary step the Commission decided, on briefs, by *7 written opinion dated December 14, 1961, that it had jurisdiction to consider the petition. The Attorney General’s request to intervene was granted.

A hearing on the merits of the petition was held by the Commission March 12, 1962, through March 15, 1962. The intervenor presented 9 witnesses and introduced 26 exhibits. At the conclusion of the hearing, the facts and the law were briefed and the Public Service Commission rendered a written opinion on September 12, 1962, concluding, in effect, that Diamond State was justified in its action because Delaware Sports Service was using its service to further illegal gambling. Subsequently, a motion requesting reargument and reconsideration was filed and the request was denied on October 10, 1962. Sports Service then took this appeal claiming (1) that the hearing before the Public Service Commission was a denial of due process of law; (2) that the findings of the Commission failed to comply with the laws pertaining to hearings before the Public Service Commission, namely, 26 Delaware Code, Secs. 183 and 187 ; 2 and (3) that the *8 Diamond State Telephone Company and the intervenor failed to establish their case by a preponderance of the evidence.

At the hearing, the telephone company argued that it had the right to act to discontinue telephone service to Delaware Sports Service because such service was being used by recipients to further illegal horse race gambling in this state and in other states. Specifically, Diamond claimed it had the right to act by virtue of Sec. 674 of Title 11 Delaware Code, or by reason of tariff No. 1, paragraph 20, 3 which it had previously filed with the Public Service Commission, or under the principle that it is never required to furnish telephone service where the use by the subscriber is against the public policy of this state.

A telephone company must furnish adequate public service to its paying customers without discrimination. 26 Del. Code § 135. See Tracy v. Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph Co., D.C.Fla., 37 F.Supp. 829, *9 830. It cannot refuse service to a legitimate enterprise. See Paterson Publishing Co. v. New Jersey Bell Telephone Co., 21 N.J. 460, 122 A.2d 599, 603.

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Related

Megaphone Co. v. Southern Bell Telephone & Telegraph Co.
643 F. Supp. 1386 (S.D. Florida, 1986)
Diamond State Telephone Co. v. Public Service Commission
357 A.2d 741 (Superior Court of Delaware, 1976)
Bedsaul v. Employment Security Commission
273 A.2d 271 (Superior Court of Delaware, 1971)
Tollin v. Diamond State Telephone Co.
286 F. Supp. 86 (D. Delaware, 1968)
Delaware Sports Service v. Diamond State Telephone Co.
241 F. Supp. 847 (D. Delaware, 1965)
Nardo v. Nardo
209 A.2d 905 (Supreme Court of Delaware, 1965)
In re Delaware Sports Service
202 A.2d 568 (Supreme Court of Delaware, 1964)
In the Matter of Delaware Sports Service
202 A.2d 568 (Supreme Court of Delaware, 1964)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
196 A.2d 215, 57 Del. 1, 7 Storey 1, 1963 Del. Super. LEXIS 161, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-delaware-sports-service-delsuperct-1963.