Webster v. Texas & Pac. Motor Transp. Co.

159 S.W.2d 902
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedNovember 25, 1941
DocketNo. 11286
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 159 S.W.2d 902 (Webster v. Texas & Pac. Motor Transp. Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Webster v. Texas & Pac. Motor Transp. Co., 159 S.W.2d 902 (Tex. Ct. App. 1941).

Opinion

MONTEITH, Chief Justice.

This is an appeal by appellants, M. R. and M. S. Webster, under the Motor Carrier Act, Articles 911a and 911b, Vernon’s Annotated Civil Statutes, from an order of the Railroad Commission granting appellee, the Texas and Pacific Motor Transport Company, a certificate of convenience and necessity to operate a common carrier motor carrier service over and along U. S. Highway No. 377, State Highway No. 10, and U.S. Highway No. 282, between Fort Worth and Sherman, Texas, serving all intermediate points.

On October 7, 1939, appellee, the Texas and Pacific Motor Transport Company, filed its application with the Railroad Commission of Texas for a certificate of convenience and necessity to operate over said highways. The application was later amended. Thereafter, after notice had been given to interested parties, two hearings were held on said application by a duly authorized examiner of the Railroad Commission, one at Fort Worth, Texas, on March 15, 1940, and one at Denton, Texas, on May 23, 1940. After said hearings, the examiner for the Commission made a written report of the testimony adduced thereon. On September 6, 1940, the Railroad Commission entered its order granting said application. The order was signed by two members of the Railroad Commission, Lon A. Smith, Chairman. of the Railroad Commission, and Jerry Sadler, Commissioner. Appellants’ exceptions and motion for rehearing were denied, and on October 15, 1940, they filed suit in the 53rd District Court of Travis County, Texas, seeking an injunction against the Railroad Commission of Texas and The Texas and Pacific Motor Transport Company to restrain them from giving effect to the application and to cause it to be cancelled. On the trial of said cause without a jury, judgment was rendered in favor of appellee, denying appellants the cancellation of said certificate and denying them a permanent injunction.

Appellants unsuccessfully sought in the trial court and here seek to have the order granting said certificate declared invalid, upon the following main grounds;

(1) That there was no sufficient showing in the record to support the findings of the Commission that there existed a public necessity and convenience for additional services and facilities, such as were offered by appellee; or that the highways sought to be travelled were adequate for the service sought or that they were not unduly burdened with the existing traffic;

(2) That the order of the Railroad Commission granting appellee’s application for said permit was invalid, for the alleged reason that it did not result from a regularly scheduled meeting of the Railroad Commission, or a called meeting of the Commission preceded by notice, but that it resulted from an informal conference between two of the Commissioners of which the third Commissioner had no notice and at which he was not present;

(3) That said order of the Railroad Commission granting said application was invalid for the alleged reason that it authorized a railroad to control a parallel or competing line. ■ '

While the causes are not the same, the exact questions involved in the first two main grounds on which appellants seek to have said certificate declared invalid, namely, that there was no sufficient' showing in the record to support, the findings of the Commission and that the order of the Commission was void for the alleged reason that it resulted from an informal conference between two of the Commissioners of which the third Commissioner had no notice and at which he was not present, were decided and fully discussed by this court in an opinion handed down on November 20, 1941, in cause-No. 11,285, entitled North East Texas Motor Lines, Inc., v. Texas and Pacific Motor Transport Company et al., 159 S.W.2d 926.

As stated in the previous opinion, it is the opinion of this Court that in an action involving Article 911b, Vernon’s Annotated Civil Statutes, the weight to be given to evidence adduced at a hearing of an application for a certificate of conven[904]*904ience and necessity has been uniformly held to be a matter for the Commission and not for the courts to determine, and that the courts are only authorized to review the order of the Commission to determine if it is within the law and to require that it shall be based on substantial evidence and not upon an arbitrary and capricious exercise of the Commission’s authority, Central Freight Lines v. Sadler, Tex.Civ.App., 147 S.W.Zd 1102; Railroad Commission v. Rapid Transit Co., Tex.Civ.App., 92 S.W.2d 261, and that the Railroad Commission is authorized to base its findings on facts adduced at said hearings upon its general knowledge of highway conditions acquired by the Commission by reason of its regulation of transfer agencies. Railroad Commission v. McDonald, Tex.Civ.App., 90 S.W.2d 581; Railroad Commission v. Southwestern Greyhound Lines, Tex.Civ.App., 92 S.W.2d 296, reversed on other grounds 128 Tex. 560, 99 S.W.2d 263, 109 A.L.R. 1255.

The Commission’s order granting ap-pellee its permit contains full findings of fact, including findings that the public would.be best served by appellee rather than by undertaking to order appellants to furnish facilities which they had not seen fit to provide of their own volition, and that the public would be best and most adequately served by granting the application, and that there existed a public necessity for such service and that public convenience would be promoted by granting said application and permitting the operation of motor vehicles on the highways designated.

Appellants’ contention that the order of the Railroad Commission granting said application was void for the alleged reason that it resulted from an informal conference between two of the Commissioners of which the third Commissioner had no notice and at which he was not present, are similar to those urged in the case of North East Texas Motor Lines, Inc., v. Texas and Pacific Motor Transport Company et al., above referred to, and the facts are similar in all material respects to the facts in said case. As stated in the previous opinion, it is the opinion of this Court that this identical question has been decided by the Austin Court of Appeals contrary to appellants’ contentions in the case of Sunshine Bus Lines v. Railroad Commission, 149 S.W.2d 228.

In each of these cases two of the Commissioners signed the order granting said certificate at an informal meeting of which the third Commissioner had no notice. As stated in the previous opinion, it is obvious from a reading of Article 911a that the statutes do not require that meetings of the Commission be held at fixed times or that notice of meetings held be given all Commissioners, or that all members be present for the transaction of the business of the Commission.

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Related

English v. Landa Motor Lines
166 S.W.2d 721 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1942)
Webster v. Texas & Pacific Motor Transport Co.
166 S.W.2d 75 (Texas Supreme Court, 1942)
Houston & North Texas Motor Freight Lines, Inc. v. Johnson
159 S.W.2d 905 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1941)

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159 S.W.2d 902, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/webster-v-texas-pac-motor-transp-co-texapp-1941.