Jones Motor Co. v. Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission

195 A.2d 125, 202 Pa. Super. 134
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedNovember 13, 1963
DocketAppeal, No. 19
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 195 A.2d 125 (Jones Motor Co. v. Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission) 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
Jones Motor Co. v. Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, 195 A.2d 125, 202 Pa. Super. 134 (Pa. Ct. App. 1963).

Opinion

Opinion by

Rhodes, P. J.,

This appeal is from an order of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission dated March 19, 1962, denying the application of Jones Motor Company, Inc., of April 9, 1957, for additional certificated authority as a motor carrier.1 The application apparently was one [138]*138of the most comprehensive ever presented to the commission.

The commission refused the application on the ground that the granting of the application is not necessary for the convenience or accommodation of the public.2 Appellant contends that the proof of the need for the proposed service and of the inadequacy of the existing service is clear.

On April 10, 1957, Jones Motor Company, Inc., filed its application with the commission. Hearings were held at various places in Pennsylvania between July 31, 1957, and February 16, 1960, requiring fifty-eight days. The record, supplemented by exhibits, totals more than 8,000 pages. • There were 110 shipper witnesses and four carrier witnesses in support of the [139]*139application. Protestants presented approximately 145 public shipper and receiver witnesses in opposition to the application, together with a large number of employes of protesting motor carriers. After the termination of the hearings, the commission, on March 21, 1960, issued an order providing for order nisi procedure before final order. Requests for findings and conclusions and voluminous briefs were filed. On March 19, 1962, the commission dispensed with the order nisi procedure and issued its final order instead.

Although the appellant assigns eight questions on this appeal, its position may be summarized as follows:

(1) The commission’s failure to follow order nisi procedure consistent with its prior order of Mareh 21, 1960, constitutes a deprivation of due process of law.

(2) The commission’s order of March 19, 1962, setting forth in “summary fashion and in general terms” the reasons for denial of the application (a) is lacking in specific findings of fact and conclusions of law as required by the Public Utility Law; (b) is indicative of a failure to properly review the evidence; (c) is predicated upon extraneous matter; and (d) is an unreasonable and arbitrary abuse of discretion, contrary to the evidence and the applicable law.

Appellant is seeking by this application extensive single-line authority involving points in twenty-four counties extending from the Ohio line on the west to the New Jersey line on the east, and also state-wide interline authority at eleven named interchange points. It is appellant’s contention that, unless it is able to combine its existing eastern and western authorities, it will not be able to provide a unified operation for the shippers it is serving or may serve in Pennsylvania, and that this will result in appellant’s inability to satisfy all the transportation needs of these shippers and cause some inconvenience and loss of revenue to appellant.

[140]*140Appellant contends it was deprived of due process of law when the commission failed to follow order nisi procedure consistent with its prior order of March 21, 1960.

At the conclusion of the hearings, protestant Motor Freight Express filed a written request for order nisi procedure with findings of fact and oral argument. In that motion it was submitted that an order nisi with findings of fact and opportunity to file and argue exceptions thereto was essential under the circumstances. Appellant filed an answer denying that an order nisi was required or was appropriate, and contended that, under Rule 50 of the Commission’s Rules of Practice, order nisi procedure was intended to apply principally to rate proceedings. On March 21, 1960, the commission. entered an interim order having concluded that the extensive record warranted the use of order nisi procedure, and directed the parties to file, if they so desired, requests for findings of fact and conclusions of law, together with a brief in support thereof. The commission denied without prejudice the motion for 'oral argument.

Appellant then filed requests for findings of fact and conclusions of law. Two years thereafter the commission filed its order dated March 19, 1962, in which it denied the application for lack of necessity, and pointed out that the record as a whole failed to reveal the quality or quantity of evidence sufficient to justify the grant of the rights sought. . It found that existing service was generally adequate and satisfactory, and that further competition was not necessary to provide adequate service. As we indicated, no order nisi was filed. Appellant filed a petition for rehearing and reconsideration and then asked the commission to follow the order nisi procedure. Answers were filed by protestants. On June 11, 1962, the commission denied appellant’s petition.

[141]*141We thus have a situation where the party who originally opposed the granting of an order nisi procedure is now arguing that the dispensing with such procedure is a violation of due process of law. With this we cannot agree.

No one is entitled to he heard on a constitutional point which does not prejudicially affect him in the case under review. Smith v. Pennsylvania, Public Utility Commission, 192 Pa. Superior Ct. 424, 428, 162 A. 2d 80.. It is well settled that the courts always have the power to waive or suspend their own rules. Such rules are intended as aids to the orderly administration of justice as well as to effective procedure. “So, also, are rules of a tribunal whose functions are administrative and but semi-judicial. . . . This court will not interfere with the action of the commission in procedural matters, unless the action resulted in depriving a party of some substantive right.” Gillis v. Public Service Commission, 105 Pa. Superior Ct. 389, 394, 161 A. 563, 565. See Pittsburgh v. Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, 153 Pa. Superior Ct. 83, 86, 87, 33 A. 2d 641.

What the commission did here was to revert to the normal procedure it follows in application cases. Appellant’s answer to the request for an order nisi proceeding set forth repeatedly that there was no need to depart from the customary procedure in application proceedings, and that oral argument was not necessary because “There is no reason why any arguments which protestants desire to raise cannot appropriately be raised by ways of briefs without further unduly prolonging this proceeding.” It is true that due process requires the opportunity to argue the case before the deciding tribunal. While there is no oral argument as a matter of course in every proceeding, rule 49 of the commission provides that the parties may request it. However, in the absence of a request, it cannot be said [142]*142that the appellant was denied due process in not being heard by the commission. Smith v. Pennsylvania, Public Utility Commission, supra, 192 Pa. Superior Ct. 424, 429, 430, 162 A. 2d 80. Appellant did not file a request within five days as provided by the rules. It refrained from such request not in reliance on the order nisi petition, but because it did not desire to have the commission’s order delayed by what it considered unnecessary oral arguments. Appellant’s request for oral argument, which was part of its petition for reconsideration of the order denying the application, does not cure its initial waiver of the right to request oral argument in accordance with the commission’s rule 49.

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Bluebook (online)
195 A.2d 125, 202 Pa. Super. 134, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jones-motor-co-v-pennsylvania-public-utility-commission-pasuperct-1963.