Case ID: la_154/html/0776-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "O’NIELL, C. J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

(98 South. 184)
    No. 26242.
    STATE ex rel. AUSTERMELL v. LOUISIANA PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION.
    (Nov. 12, 1923.)
    
      (Syllabus by Editorial Staff.)
    
    Public service commissions <@^ 19 (4) — When no contempt disclosed, Supreme Court will annul rule issued by state Public Service Commission.
    Where the state Public Service Commission had issued an order to show cause why the secretary of a pipe line company should not be punished for contempt, and the certified record filed by the Commission in response to a writ of certiorari did not show a sufficient reason why the proceedings were instituted, and the answer of the Commission fails to disclose any contempt, the Supreme Court will annul the order or rule for contempt.
    Dawkins, Overton, St. Paul, and Thompson, JJ., dissenting.
    Certiorari by the State, on the relation of H. T. Austermell', against the Louisiana Public Service Commission, to annul contempt proceedings, instituted against relator.
    Rule for contempt annulled.
    T. M. Milling, F. L. Hargrove, and Albert P. Garland, all of Shreveport, for relator.
    Huey P. Long, of Shreveport, for respondent.
   By the WHOLE COURT.

O’NIELL, C. J.

The relator in this case is the party referred to as the secretary of the Standard Pipe Line Company, Inc., in the case entitled State ex rel. T. M. Milling v. Louisiana Public Service Commission, No. 26241, ante, p. 752, 98 South. 175, decided today.

The certified record filed by the Public Service Commission, in response to the writ of certiorari does not show a sufficient reason why contempt proceedings should have been instituted against Mr. Austermell. Nor does the answer of the Commission inform us of any offense on his part. For that reason, and for the reasons given in our opinion in State ex rel. T. M Milling v. Louisiana Public Commission, as far as those reasons are appropriate.

The order or rule for contempt served upon the relator, H. T. Austermell, is annulled.

DAWKINS, OVERTON, ST. PAUL, and THOMPSON, JJ., dissent.