Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad Co. v. State

712 P.2d 40
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedMarch 7, 1986
Docket60429
StatusPublished
Cited by40 cases

This text of 712 P.2d 40 (Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad Co. v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad Co. v. State, 712 P.2d 40 (Okla. 1986).

Opinions

SUMMERS, Justice.

This controversy is the first challenge to the application and interpretation of Oklahoma law regulating the use of eminent domain by coal slurry pipelines. 27 O.S. 1981, § 7.1 et seq.

The appellant, Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad Co. (MKT) is contesting the decision of the Corporation Commission to grant Appellee ETSI Pipeline Project (ETSI) a license to exercise eminent domain powers in the construction of a coal slurry pipeline, Corporation Commission Order No. 238528. The license was granted after months of hearings and discovery. The licensing was vigorously contested by the Oklahoma Railways Committee, an unincorporated association composed of Oklahoma’s major railroads, of which MKT is a component part. After the license was granted, MKT filed this appeal of the Corporation Commission’s order.

ETSI and the Corporation Commission have challenged MKT’s standing to appeal the issuance of Commission Order No. 238528. This Court deferred a ruling on ETSI’s Motion to Dismiss MKT’s appeal [42]*42until all issues of this case were fully briefed. These issues are as follows:

ISSUES
1. Whether MKT has standing to appeal the issuance of Corporation Commission Order No. 238528.
2. Whether the Corporation Commission has subject matter jurisdiction over ETSI.
3. Whether the regulation of ETSI has been pre-empted by the federal government.
4. Whether 27 O.S.1981 § 7.1, et seq. as regulation of coal pipelines is unconstitutional.
5. Whether the right to exercise eminent domain can be conferred under 27 O.S. 1981 § 7.1, et seq. upon ETSI as a joint venture.
6. Whether the evidence in the record is sufficient to support Corporation Commission Order No. 238528 under the statutory standards set forth in 27 O.S. 1981 § 7.1, et seq.

I.

DOES MKT HAVE STANDING TO APPEAL THE ISSUANCE OF CORPORATION COMMISSION ORDER NO. 238528?

Whether a party has a right to contest an administrative action is largely a question of law.1 27 O.S.1981 § 7.1 et seq. is a legislative attempt to confer upon the Corporation Commission the regulation of coal pipelines in the state of Oklahoma. No provision for appeal is made in these sections. Art. 9, Oklahoma Constitution, which created the Corporation Commission and vested it with certain specific administrative powers2 also provides that the legislature may confer additional powers and duties upon the Commission.3 It further provides that from all orders of the Corporation Commission an appeal will be to this court by a “party affected” or by “any person deeming himself aggrieved”.4 The use of the word “person” along with the word “party” suggests that others than those technically a party to the proceeding before the Commission may appeal. The issue present, therefore, is whether MKT is a party affected or a person deeming himself aggrieved by Corporation Commission Order No. 238528 or both.

ETSI contends that MKT does not have standing to institute an appeal in this cause No. 27470 because MKT was not a party to that proceeding. The authority cited by ETSI does not support its contention under the facts of this case. To the contrary, the Oklahoma Railways Committee is an unincorporated association.5 An unincorporated association has no legal entity or existence apart from its members.6 MKT, as a member and component part of the Oklahoma Railways Committee, appeared before the Corporation Commission and opposed ETSI’s application for license. We find, therefore, MKT was a party to this proceeding before the Corporation Commission.

ETSI next urges that MKT does not have standing to appeal cause No. 27470 because it has not been aggrieved by Commission Order No. 238528.

Oklahoma case law defines an “aggrieved party” as one whose pecuniary interest in the subject matter is directly and injuriously affected or one whose right in property is either established or divested by the decision from which the appeal is prosecuted. To render a party aggrieved by a decision, its adverse effect must be direct, substantial and immediate rather than con[43]*43tingent on some possible remote consequence or a mere possibility of an unknown future eventuality.7

Oklahoma case law has not defined either a “party affected” or “any person deeming himself aggrieved”. Here we are faced with the issue of whether a competitor belongs to one or both of the classes of “party affected” or “any person deeming himself aggrieved”. The doctrine that a competitor belongs to the class of persons whose injury is sufficiently direct, substantial, and immediate to qualify as “aggrieved” has been adopted in several types of cases.

In Cia Mexicana De Gas v. Federal Power Commission,8 a case brought under § 19(b) of the Natural Gas Act, the court thought it “clear” that a natural gas company which competed with a certificate applicant had standing to seek judicial review of the order granting the certificate.

In National Coal Ass’n. v. Federal Power Commission,9 the National Goal Association and others filed petitions for review of an order of the Federal Power Commission granting a certificate of public convenience and necessity for the construction of a gas pipe line to supply the Atomic Energy Commission’s plant at Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The court held that the petitioners, a trade association of competing coal companies and labor unions of their employees, were sufficiently aggrieved by the grant to maintain proceedings for review.

The U.S. Supreme Court has held that one threatened with financial loss through increased competition resulting from a Federal Communications Commission is “aggrieved” and entitled as such to a review of the order by the Court of Appeals.10

In an action by a data processor’s association and data processing corporation to review rulings of the Comptroller that national banks, including defendant bank, could make data processing services available to other banks and to bank customers, the Supreme Court held that plaintiffs, as competitors of national banks which are engaging in data processing services, were “aggrieved” persons who, under the Administrative Procedure Act, were entitled to judicial review of the ruling.11

We think the reasoning of this authority is sufficient to support the proposition that a competitor whose pecuniary interest is directly and injuriously affected and to whom the adverse effect of the Commission’s order is direct, substantial and immediate is a “party affected” and/or “any person deeming himself aggrieved” within the meaning of Art. 9, § 20, Oklahoma Constitution.

MKT in an affidavit filed with its Response to Motion to Dismiss stated that in 1981 MKT transmitted 12,540 carloads of coal from Wyoming to the Grand River Dam Authority (GRDA) at Pryor, Oklahoma, in 1982, 17,144 carloads, through the first six months of 1983, 7,044 carloads, with an estimate of an additional 11,500 for a total of 18,594 carloads in 1983.

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Bluebook (online)
712 P.2d 40, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/missouri-kansas-texas-railroad-co-v-state-okla-1986.