U S West Communications, Inc. v. Public Service Commission

901 P.2d 270, 268 Utah Adv. Rep. 27, 1995 Utah LEXIS 46, 1995 WL 422842
CourtUtah Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 13, 1995
DocketNo. 930313
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 901 P.2d 270 (U S West Communications, Inc. v. Public Service Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Utah Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
U S West Communications, Inc. v. Public Service Commission, 901 P.2d 270, 268 Utah Adv. Rep. 27, 1995 Utah LEXIS 46, 1995 WL 422842 (Utah 1995).

Opinion

ZIMMERMAN, Chief Justice:

U S West Communications, Inc. (“USWC”), seeks review of an order of the Public Service Commission (“the Commission”) approving a $4,907,000 increase in USWC’s rates. USWC asserts that the Commission erred in (i) disallowing an increase for 10% of USWC’s expenses for services rendered by its affiliate U S West Communications Services, Inc.; (ii) disallowing an increase for 34% of USWC’s rental payments to its affiliate U S West Real Estate, Inc.; (iii) disallowing an increase for the expense of USWC’s long-term incentive compensation plan for executives; and (iv) refusing to rule on USWC’s proposed accounting adjustment to nonexecutive incentive compensation expenses. USWC also challenges the Commission’s treatment of pension credits and the cost of post-retirement benefits other than pensions. We affirm in part and reverse and remand in part.

Our review is governed by section 63-46b-16(4) of the Utah Administrative Procedures Act, Utah Code Ann. §§ 63-46b-0.5 to -22. In pertinent part, section 63^6b-16(4) provides as follows:

(4) The appellate court shall grant relief only if, on the basis of the agency’s record, it determines that a person seeking judicial review has been substantially prejudiced by any of the following:
(a) the agency action ... is unconstitutional ...;
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(c) the agency has not decided all of the issues requiring resolution;
(d) the agency has erroneously interpreted or applied the law;
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(g) the agency action is based upon a determination of fact, made or implied by the agency, that is not supported by substantial evidence when viewed in light of the whole record before the court;
(h) the agency action is:
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(iv) otherwise arbitrary or capricious.

Utah Code Ann. § 63-46b-16(4).

We address the claims of USWC in order. USWC first contends that the Commission erred in disallowing a rate increase to cover 10% of USWC’s expenses for marketing services rendered by its affiliate U S West Communications Services, Inc. (“USWCS”). USWC sought an increase to cover 100% of its expenses paid to USWCS. The Committee of Consumer Services (“the Committee”), a party to the proceeding before the Commission, proposed a disallowance of 10% of that amount on the basis that the services provided by USWCS “may be duplicative” of services provided by another USWC affiliate, U S West Advanced Technologies, Inc. (“US-WAT”), or of services which USWC was itself capable of providing. The Commission adopted the Committee’s proposed disallowance, concluding that USWC “has not met its burden to provide sufficient information to permit us to determine that [USWCS’s] charges are reasonable for services necessary to the provision of utility services.”

USWC now argues that (i) the Commission incorrectly placed the burden on USWC of proving that the services rendered by USWCS were not duplicative rather than requiring the Committee to produce evidence in support of its proposed disallowance; (ii) the Commission erred in concluding that USWC faded to meet its burden of proof by arbitrarily ignoring credible, uncontradicted evidence that the services rendered by USWCS were not duplicative; and (iii) because no evidence was presented as to the specific percentage of services rendered by USWCS which were duplicative, the Commission’s disallowance of 10% of USWC’s expenses was arbitrary. We conclude that although the Commission properly placed the burden of proof on USWC, the Commission erred in concluding that USWC faded to meet that burden.1

Although USWC acknowledges that it bears the burden of proving that the expenses it seeks to have reflected in a rate [274]*274increase are reasonable, see Utah Dep’t of Business Regulation v. Public Serv. Comm’n, 614 P.2d 1242, 1245 (Utah 1980), it suggests that these expenses should be presumed reasonable and that the party opposing the rate increase should bear the burden of producing evidence to the contrary. We disagree. Whatever merit USWC’s argument might have in the context of non-affiliate expenses, we do not think an affiliate expense should carry a presumption of reasonableness. While the pressures of a competitive market might allow us to assume, in the absence of a showing to the contrary, that nonaffiliate expenses are reasonable, the same cannot be said of affiliate expenses not incurred in an arm’s length transaction. See Boise Water Corp. v. Idaho Pub. Util. Comm’n, 97 Idaho 832, 838, 555 P.2d 163, 169 (1976) (“The reason for this distinction between affiliate and non-affiliate expenditures appears to be that the probability of unwarranted expenditures corresponds to the probability of collusion.”); see also Arkansas-Louisiana Gas Co. v. City of Texarkana, 17 F.Supp. 447, 459-60 (W.D.Ark.1936) (burden rests “heavily” on utility to show service provided by affiliate was of value to utility). Because USWCS was an affiliate of USWC, the Commission did not err in placing the burden on USWC of proving that the services rendered by USWCS were not duplica-tive.

Nonetheless, the Commission’s unexplained disregard of credible, uncontradicted evidence that the services rendered by USWCS were not duplicative was arbitrary and capricious and therefore warrants reversal under Utah Code Ann. § 63-46b-16(4)(h)(iv). Joseph Dwyer, who was responsible for managing the contractual and other business arrangements between USWC and its affiliates, testified that there was no possibility of duplication in the services rendered by USWCS, USWAT, and USWC. The relevant portion of Dwyer’s testimony reads as follows:

USWCS has responsibility for virtually all sales activity for the Large Business Unit of USWC. There is only a handful of sales personnel on the USWC payroll. Strategic Account Managers, Account Managers and Account Executives are all on the USWCS payroll and not the USWC payroll. This sales responsibility has been assigned to USWCS. As a result there is no possibility for duplication between USWCS and USWC.
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The services provided by [USWAT] are distinctly different from the market and product management activities performed at either USWCS or USWC.
[USWAT’s] principle [sic] function is to perform and interpret market research studies conducted for various business units and market units of U S West, Inc. These studies assess what types of products/services are desired by customers, what customers are willing to pay, and customer satisfaction with current product/service offerings.
Marketing activities performed at USWC are directed towards identifying the needs of customers and developing business solutions to address those needs.

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901 P.2d 270, 268 Utah Adv. Rep. 27, 1995 Utah LEXIS 46, 1995 WL 422842, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/u-s-west-communications-inc-v-public-service-commission-utah-1995.