Home/Supreme Court of Missouri/State Ex Rel. City of St. Louis v. Public Service Commission

State Ex Rel. City of St. Louis v. Public Service Commission

110 S.W.2d 749, 341 Mo. 920, 1937 Mo. LEXIS 532
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedDecember 9, 1937
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 110 S.W.2d 749 (State Ex Rel. City of St. Louis v. Public Service Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State Ex Rel. City of St. Louis v. Public Service Commission, 110 S.W.2d 749, 341 Mo. 920, 1937 Mo. LEXIS 532 (Mo. 1937).

Opinion

*933 ELLISON, J.-

This is an appeal from a judgment of the Circuit Court of Cole County affirming an order of the Public Service Commission dated November 3Ó, 1934, which fixed for rate-making purposes the fair value of the property of the appellant Laclede Gas Light Company, a large public utility operating in St. Louis, and ordered a six per cent reduction in rates to domestic and commercial consumers. The valuation fixed by the Commission is $39,000,000. The Company contends it should be at least $50,000,000. The City of St. Louis, which also has appealed, maintains it does not exceed $27,000,000.

In October, 1925, the Commission found the fair value of the Company’s property to be $45,600,000, and no appeal was taken. In 1927 the Commission fixed the value of the property at $47,000,000. On appeal that order was disapproved by this court in State ex rel. City of St. Louis v. Pub. Serv. Comm., 329 Mo. 918, 47 S. W. (2d) 102, P. U. R. 1932A, 305. The Commission then held further hearings and arrived at the valuation here assailed. [7 P. U. R. (N. S.) 277.] The essential, but by no means complete, details of the finding are shown in the table on next page.

The record in this case is voluminous, containing over 2800 printed pages, with original exhibits of equal length filed by stipulation and consent of court. The Company’s original and reply briefs contain 390 pages and the City’s briefs 356 pages. Counsel for the Public Service Commission also have filed a sixty-page brief. The City makes twenty-one assignments of error, and the Company sixty-four. It is obvious that we cannot discuss all these assignments and the whole evidence within * the compass of an opinion • of reasonable length.

The Company’s physical properties consist of lands owned or leased, right of way, and structural property. This latter is composed of buildings and like structures, a large by-product coke plant, gas mains throughout the City of St. Louis, service lines leading from these mains to the consumers’ premises, gas meters, plant equipment such as gas generating and storing machines and appurtenances, and office equipment.

In addition, in the valuation of the property allowance was made for overheads, such as expense of preliminary organization and for

*934

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Bluebook (online)
110 S.W.2d 749, 341 Mo. 920, 1937 Mo. LEXIS 532, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-city-of-st-louis-v-public-service-commission-mo-1937.