Opinion ID: 1174031
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: General Law Correction of Error.

Text: In reviewing the Commission's interpretations of general questions of law, this Court applies a correction-of-error standard, with no deference to the expertise of the Commission. General questions of law include interpretation of the United States Constitution and the Acts of Congress, and interpretation of the Utah Constitution and the Acts of the Legislature (except those defined below as special laws). This is the type of review specified in the first sentence of the statute quoted above, i.e., whether the Commission has regularly pursued its authority and whether it has violated any constitutional or statutory rights of the petitioner. Examples of this correction-of-errors type of review include whether the Commission has complied with the fairness requirements of due process, [8] whether the Commission has acted beyond its statutory jurisdiction or authority, [9] and such questions of general law as the interpretation of contracts and certificates. [10] This is also the standard this Court applied in Wexpro I when it reversed the Commission's decision which in effect denied that the MFS ratepayers had any proprietary interest in the oil properties they had helped to finance and that the Commission lost its jurisdiction when those properties were transferred to Wexpro. Correction of errors without deference to the expertise of the Commission is the standard this Court will follow in determining whether the Commission has departed from this Court's mandate on the remand from Wexpro I (Part III), and in determining the degree of finality or res judicata to be accorded to the Commission's decision in this matter (Part V). In contrast to questions of general law, on which this Court acts without deference to the decision of the Commission because the Court has comparatively greater qualifications on these questions, in reviewing each of the other two types of questions this Court extends a degree of deference to the Commission because of its proximity and expertise.