State ex rel. Hopkins v. Southwestern Bell Telephone Co.

223 P. 771, 115 Kan. 236, 1924 Kan. LEXIS 237
CourtSupreme Court of Kansas
DecidedFebruary 9, 1924
DocketNo. 23,988; No. 24,634
StatusPublished
Cited by49 cases

This text of 223 P. 771 (State ex rel. Hopkins v. Southwestern Bell Telephone Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State ex rel. Hopkins v. Southwestern Bell Telephone Co., 223 P. 771, 115 Kan. 236, 1924 Kan. LEXIS 237 (kan 1924).

Opinion

The opinion of the court was delivered by

MARSHALL, J.:

An opinion in these cases was filed November 10, 1923. A rehearing has been granted, and the opinion filed has not¿ been published. The entire case has been reexamined and reconsidered, and this opinion is filed to take the place of the one filed in November.

The former opinion contained language which has been understood as a criticism of the public utilities commission. The court did not intend to criticize the commission; and, for that reason, the language whch has been misunderstood is withdrawn.

In case No. 23,988, the state, on the relation of the attorney-general and of the attorney for the public utilities commission, seeks by mandamus to' compel the defendant, the Southwestern Bell Telephone Company, “to establish, put into effect, and maintain the schedule of telephone rates at Great Bend, Kan., as fixed in the order of the public utilities commission dated October 20, 1921, in docket No. 4,196, and to comply with all of the terms and conditions of said order until otherwise ordered by the public utilities com[239]*239mission for the state of Kansas.” An alternative writ of mandamus was issued; an answer thereto was filed; and issues were joined.

Case No. 24,634 is an appeal by the public utilities commission from the district court of Shawnee county in an action in which the Southwestern Bell Telephone Company procured a judgment that “orders made and promulgated by the defendant commission on the 24th day of June, 1921, and designated as order in docket No. 3,567, order in docket No. 3,568, order in docket No. 3,569, order in docket No. 3,642, order in docket No. 3,643, and order in docket No. 3,644, are unreasonable, unlawful and void; and said orders are, and each of them is, hereby vacated, set aside and held for naught, and the temporary injunction or stay order hereby granted in this cause is hereby made permanent, and said defendants, and each of them, his attorneys, agents, and employees, and their successors in office, are each hereby permanently enjoined from enforcing or in any manner attempting to enforce said orders, or any or either of them, and from imposing or attempting to impose upon, or collecting or at tempting to collect from plaintiff, any penalty, fine or forfeiture for or on account of noncompliance with said orders.” The orders last described involve telephone rates at Arkansas City, Atchison, El Dorado, Lyons, Hutchinson, and Winfield.

At the threshhold of consideration of case No. 24,634, we are met by an objection to the consideration of this appeal on the ground that no motion for a new trial was filed in the district court. That matter will be further noticed.

In case No. 23,988, George T. McDermott was by this court appointed commissioner to take the evidence, make findings of fact and conclusions of law, and report the same to this court. In case No. 24,634, George T. McDermott was appointed referee by the district court of Shawnee county to take the evidence, make findings of fact and conclusions of law, and report the same to that court. The cases were tried together before the commissioner and referee; the evidence in both cases wás taken at the same time; the testimony' of each witness was made applicable in each case, except in some minor particulars; and the commissioner and referee filed the same report in each court. That report shows the methods followed by the commissioner and referee, the facts found by him, and his conclusions of law thereon. The report is exhaustive and complete, and consists of 103 pages of printed matter, a copy of which is attached hereto as an appendix.- All the parties to this litigation [240]*240treat the report as a part of their abstracts. Under a stipulation, only a portion of the evidence was transcribed.

The state, in case No. 23,988, the mandamus case, filed exceptions to the report of the commissioner, as follows:

“I. That the declarations of law contained in said report are erroneous and contrary to the principles of law applicable to the proceedings in this case.
“II. That the plaintiff especially excepts to findings Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 16, and 19, for the reason that said findings of fact are based upon estimates of expert engineers and accountants who are employees of defendant, and such estimates and calculations were made upon wrong theories and not in accordance with the principles of law which should be observed in ascertaining the facts so estimated, and for the further reason that said findings of the commissioner are not supported by the testimony introduced 'in evidence in the case.
“HI. That the conclusions of law found by the commissioner in this case, as set out on page 102 of the report of the commissioner, are not justified or supported by the evidence of pertinent and material facts contained in the record.”

In case No. 24,634, the public utilities commission filed exceptions to the report of the referee, as follows:

“I. That the declarations of law contained in said report are erroneous and contrary to the principles of law applicable to the proceedings in this case.
“II. That the defendants especially except to findings Nos. 1 to 15, inclusive, for the reason that said findings of fact are based upon estimates of expert engineers and accountants who are employees of the plaintiff, and such estimates and calculations were made upon wrong theories, and not in accordance with .the principles of law which should be observed in ascertaining the facts so estimated, and for the further reason that said findings of the referee are not supported by the testimony introduced in evidence in the case.
“III. That the conclusions of law found by the referee in this case, as set out on page 103 of the report of the referee, are not justified or supported by the evidence of pertinent and material facts contained in the record.”

(Under these exceptions, the state and the public utilities commission attack the allocation of expenses and revenues made by the commissioner and referee between long distance and local service; attack the theory adopted for determining the depreciation of the several plants involved in this controversy; attack the contract by which the Southwestern Bell Telephone Company agreed to pay 4% per cent of its gross receipts to the American Telephone and Telegraph Company for services rendered; attack the allowance of federal income tax as a part of the operating expenses of the telephone company; and attack the “going-concern” value of the plants, as found by the commissioner and referee!) The telephone company undertakes to meet the argument of the state and the public utilities [241]*241commission by showing that the methods adopted by the commissioner and referee were proper methods and that the rates fixed in the orders of the public utilities commission are unreasonable and confiscatory.

Case No. 23,988, being an original proceeding in mandamus, must be examined according to the rules observed in the hearing of original actions — that is, that the report of the commissioner is presumed to be correct, but that this court, where a finding of fact is challenged, must make an independent examination of the evidence and come to its own conclusion thereon. However, the evidence to which the attention of the court is directed should be abstracted, and it is the evidence that is abstracted that should be examined.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
223 P. 771, 115 Kan. 236, 1924 Kan. LEXIS 237, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-hopkins-v-southwestern-bell-telephone-co-kan-1924.