State ex rel. Anderson Motor Service Co. v. Public Service Commission

134 S.W.2d 1069, 234 Mo. App. 470
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedNovember 20, 1939
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 134 S.W.2d 1069 (State ex rel. Anderson Motor Service Co. v. Public Service Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State ex rel. Anderson Motor Service Co. v. Public Service Commission, 134 S.W.2d 1069, 234 Mo. App. 470 (Mo. Ct. App. 1939).

Opinions

BLAND, J.

This is an appeal from a decree reversing a decision of the Public Service Commission. The cause originated before the Commission on September 11, 1934, when the appellant, Perry A. Brooks, doing business as the Brooks Truck Company, filed his application before the Commission requesting it to grant him, among other things, authority to consolidate his truck lines and to render through freight service intrastate between all points on his numerous regular routes, and to publish through rates.

The facts show that at- the time of the filing of his application Brooks possessed seven or eight certificates of convenience and necessity, some of which he had acquired through the operation of the so-called “Grandfather Clause” in the Bus and Truck Act (see section 5277, Laws 1931, p. 315), and others of which he acquired by purchasing the business of other persons owning certificates of convenience and necessity, which had been transferred to Brooks by the Commission under the provisions of section 5268(c), Revised Statutes 1929.

Under his various certificates he was operating truck lines serving sixty or sixty-five towns in Central Missouri and having authority to [477]*477transport freight from Kansas City and St. Louis to and from some .of these towns but he had been prohibited by the Commission from transporting merchandise between Kansas City and St. Louis and between those cities and certain of the sixty or sixty-five towns between some of these towns. The granting of the application 'to Brooks would permit him to engage in the transportation of property between St. Louis and Kansas City theretofore specifically denied and between certain other points likewise theretofore specifically d.enied.

After due notice to all of the interested parties a trial was had in Jefferson C^y; at which hearing Brooks,. respondents (protestants) herein and .numerous other protestants, participated and submitted testimony. On January 2, 1935, the Commission, by its report and order, granted the applicant the authority sought except between points where protestan! motor carriers were furnishing service. The Commission filed a written opinion which was concurred in by all of its members.

Thereafter, the applicant filed a motion for a rehearing and on January 25, 1935, the Commission, by its Supplemental Report-and Order, reversed the first order and found that the applicant was entitled to all of the authority, he requested.' A written opinion was rendered which was concurred in by four of the Commissioners, one being absent. To this Report and Order of the Commission, all of the respondents in this appeal and other protestants, filed a motion for a rehearing. Thereafter, on the 21st day of March, 1935, the Commission issued a second Supplemental Report and Order, substantially reinstating the first order with some minor changes. The opinion ■of the Commission in this instance was concurred in by three Commissioners, one of whom wrote a separate opinion. A dissenting ■opinion was written by one of the Commissioners, the other concurring in the result reached in the dissenting opinion. The dissenting ■opinion held, in effect, that the applicant was entitled to the relief sought in his application.

To the second -Supplemental Report and Order the applicant, Brooks, filed a motion for a rehearing. The Commission, on May 27, 1935, issued its Supplemental Report and. Order No. 3, sustaining the motion for rehearing and giving Brooks all of the relief that he asked for. ■ The opinion was concurred in by two of the Commissioners, one Commissioner concurring in a separate opinion and two dissenting in an opinion. The dissenting opinion follows, generally, the reasoning of the majority opinion in the second hearing.

The’respondents and other protestants filed a motion for a rehearing and, on August 30, 1935, the Commission again issued its Supplemental Report and Order No. 4, reversing the majority opinion in the last hearing and taking away the authority that it had granted to the applicant. The Commission adopted the dissenting opinion filed in connection with Supplemental Report and Order No. 3, [478]*478three Commissioners concurring and two dissenting in an opinion holding that the applicant was entitled to the relief sought in his application. (It might be stated that the reversals of its rulings by the Commission were not due wholly to a change of mind of any of the Commissioners but largely to changes in personnel of the Commission. )

In due time Brooks filed a motion for a rehearing which was overruled on the 24th day of February, 1936, and the case was removed to the Circuit Court of Cole County by a writ of certiorari applied for by Brooks. On April 16, 1936, the circuit court rendered its decree finding: “Perry A. Brooks, by all the evidence produced, was and is entitled to a consolidation of his truck system and that the shipping public will be benefited by granting the authority that the applicant seeks. The court finds that protestants did not submit any testimony showing that it would not beJa public benefit to the shipping public to grant the authority applied for. The court further finds that applicant did not have to prove public convenience and necessity in that the law required him to prove public benefit only, which burden applicant fully sustained by all of the evidence submitted and to which protestants offered no proof. The court finds that applicant under the facts, evidence and the law is entitled to the authority sought in his application and that the majority opinion of the Public Service Commission is, therefore, arbitrary, unreasonable, unlawful and capricious and against the law and, therefore, said order violates the discretionary power of the Commission, is arbitrary, unreasonable and without a just or reasonable basis.

“Wherefore, it is the order, judgment and decree of the court that said order and majority opinion be set aside, and the cause be reversed and remanded to the Public Service Commission of this State for further action. ’ ’

From this decree, the Public Service Commission and the protestants appealed to this court, where the decree was affirmed upon a motion of the respondents in said appeal on account of the failure of the appellants to comply with sections 1027 and 1028, Revised Statutes 1929, regarding the filing of transcripts in this court.

Thereafter, the Commission, on January 6, 1937, issued Supplemental Report and Order No. 5. This Supplemental Report and Order recites that, in the decree of the circuit court, which was affirmed by this court, “The majority opinion of the Commission was set aside and the cause reversed and remanded to the’ Commission by that court. . . .

“The mandate issued by the Circuit Court of Cole County contains the finding that the relief sought by the applicant company should have .been granted, in effect sustaining the finding of the dissenting opinion (filed in connection with the issuance of Supplemental Report and Order No. 4.)
[479]

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Bluebook (online)
134 S.W.2d 1069, 234 Mo. App. 470, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-anderson-motor-service-co-v-public-service-commission-moctapp-1939.