Opinion ID: 2391146
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: the denial of rehearing

Text: The questions involved on the phase of the appeal dealing with the Board's order of September 18, 1952, denying the Company's petition for rehearing may be summarized as follows: (a) Did the Board abuse its discretion in denying the petition for rehearing on the original evidence and determination? (b) Did the Board abuse its discretion in denying the petition for rehearing insofar as changed conditions were asserted therein? That the Board has authority to order a rehearing is substantiated by R.S. 48:2-40, which provides that The board at any time may order a rehearing and extend, revoke or modify an order made by it. Cf. Central R. Co. of N.J. v. Dept. of Pub. Utilities, 7 N.J. 247, at 254-255 (1951). This statutory provision is a rule of the Board within the contemplation of Rule 1:2-6( d ) adopted June 7, 1951. Cf. Borough of Jamesburg v. Hubbs, 6 N.J. 578, 584 (1951). It is a legislative recognition of the principle that unless qualified by statute the right to order a rehearing is inherent in administrative tribunals, expressed by Mr. Justice Heher for this court in Handlon v. Town of Belleville, 4 N.J. 99, 106-107 (1950). The general rule with respect to allowance of rehearing is stated in the Handlon case, supra, to be qualified by the requirement for the exercise of reasonable diligence. R.S. 48:2-40, supra, expresses the legislative purpose to enlarge this inherent power of the Board to permit it to allow a rehearing at any time. Central R. Co. of N.J. v. Dept. of Pub. Utilities, supra (7 N.J., at pp. 254-255). However, this would not have permitted the Board to grant a rehearing after the allowance of a writ of certiorari (pending determination thereon) under the former procedure relating to resort to the writ for review of the Board's orders. R.S. 48:2-43. Nor does it affect the course of review ordained by this court under our constitutional mandate. The pertinent portion of N.J. Const. 1947, Art. VI, Sec. V, par. 4, provides: Prerogative writs are superseded and, in lieu thereof, review, hearing and relief shall be afforded in the Superior Court, on terms and in the manner provided by rules of the Supreme Court, as of right,   . The procedure for review in the present case, within the constitutional requirement, is provided by Rules 3:81-8, 1:2-5 and 1:2-6( d ), supra. Cf. Central R. Co. of N.J. v. Dept. of Public Utilities, supra (7 N.J., at pp. 257-259). Consistently therewith the appeal from the August 15, 1951 order of the Board was required to be made within 30 days of the service thereof on the Company, since at the time of the order Rule 1:2-5( f ) applied. (The present Rule 1:2-5( b ), effective January 1, 1952, provides a 45-day period applicable to agency decisions entered after that date.) The filing of a timely petition for rehearing with the Board, however, tolls the time for appeal, Rule 1:2-6( d ), supra, if the petition is filed within the time for appeal. In the present matter the Company's petition for rehearing was filed on the 14th day after the date of the Board's original decision but on the 13th day after service of the decision on the Company, the controlling date under former Rule 1:2-5( f ) supra. ( Cf. Rule 1:2-5( b ) now in effect). There then remained 17 days within which to file an appeal from the order of August 15, 1951. This remaining time again began to run from the date of the decision denying the rehearing. The date of actual decision was September 18, 1952, and computation of time under Rule 1:2-5, supra, would indicate that the last day for the filing of the notice of appeal was October 5, 1952. However, since October 5, 1952 was a Sunday, the filing on October 6, 1952 was timely. Rule 1:7-8. We need not consider whether the date of a decision denying rehearing, Rule 1:2-6( d ) supra, is the date of service of the decision (in this case, September 20, 1952) as argued by the Company. The Company's petition for rehearing was itself timely under R.S. 48:2-40, supra. It was equally timely within Rule 1:2-6( d ), supra, for it was filed within the time allowed by Rule 1:2-5, supra, for appeal. Cf. Albertson v. F.C.C., 87 U.S. App. D.C. 39, 182 F. 2 d 397 ( App. D.C. 1950); Saginaw Broadcasting Co. v. F.C.C., 68 App. D.C. 282, 96 F. 2 d 554 ( App. D.C. 1938); Southland Industries, Inc., v. F.C.C., 69 App. D.C. 82, 99 F. 2 d 117 ( App. D.C. 1938). It was asserted by the State as an individual respondent that the Board's delay in reaching its decision denying the Company's application for rehearing was too greatly removed from the date of the original decision and therefore the Company's appeal was not timely. This is without merit in view of Rule 1:2-6( d ), supra. The Company's petition for rehearing, regardless of its merits, was addressed to a review of the findings and conclusions stated by the Board in its original decision of August 15, 1951. The Company was within its rights in applying for rehearing. A rehearing is not essential to due process of law. In Pittsburgh, C.C. & St. L.R. Co. v. Backus, 154 U.S. 421, 426-427, 14 S.Ct. 1114, 38 L.Ed. 1031, 1036 (1894), the United States Supreme Court held, in reviewing an appeal from a state supreme court judgment upholding a state tax board determination:    Rehearings, and new trials, are not essential to due process of law, either in judicial or administrative proceedings. One hearing, if ample, before judgment, satisfies the demand of the constitution in this respect. Further it has been repeatedly declared by the United States Supreme Court that rehearings before administrative bodies are addressed to their own discretion and only a showing of the clearest abuse of discretion could sustain an exception to that rule. Radio Corp. of America v. United States, 341 U.S. 412, 420-421, 71 S.Ct. 806, 95 L.Ed. 1062, 1071 (1951); United States v. Pierce Auto Freight Lines, 327 U.S. 515, 534-535, 66 S.Ct. 687, 90 L.Ed. 821, 834-835 (1946); Interstate Commerce Commission v. Jersey City, 322 U.S. 503, 514-519, 64 S.Ct. 1129, 88 L.Ed. 1420, 1428-1431 (1944). These general principles are supported by the pertinent statutory provisions. In Central R. Co. of N.J. v. Dept. of Pub. Utilities, supra (7 N.J., at pp. 254-255), this court held:    the legislative intent to require final disposition of initial rate proceedings within a maximum six months period is evident. On the other hand, it is equally evident that the Legislature intended no bar to further hearings on the same subject matter, for the Board is authorized to investigate upon its own initiative or upon complaint in writing any matter (which would necessarily include fares) concerning any public utility, R.S. 48:2-19, supra, and at any time to order a rehearing and extend, revoke or modify an order made by it, R.S. 48:2-40, supra. The comprehensive legislative design is one of continuous supervision, with a mandate to the Board to resolve initial investigations, expeditiously, and yet granting to it concomitant authority to institute corrective proceedings and especially where experience furnishes evidence of failure of an earlier order to accomplish its intended purpose. We find no fault with the action of the Board in initiating a rehearing.    In the present case the Company's petition for rehearing, insofar as it related to the evidence considered by the Board and the Board's decision and order (dated August 15, 1951) emanating therefrom, appears merely to have reiterated the Company's disagreement with the Board's treatment of the evidence generally. It contained no clear indication of the nature of the material errors the Company alleged were apparent in the Board's decision. Viewed in the light of that circumstance alone, the Board's denial of the petition for rehearing was within their discretion. Compare Public Service Coordinated Transport v. State, supra (5 N.J., at p. 226). The Company asserts, however, that the Board was required to allow its petition for rehearing upon the Company's allegations of changed circumstances. In so contending the Company attempts to draw support from the above-quoted portion of our opinion in the Central R. Co. case, supra (7 N.J., at pp. 254-255). The rehearing there was granted by the Board within its independent discretion to initiate rehearing. It was not held that the statute constituted a mandatory direction to the Board to allow a rehearing, and nothing in the statute may be so construed. It is settled that the statute provides in the continuing supervisory power of the Board a wholly adequate means for close supervision of public utility rates and for the correction of inequities and adjustment to shifting circumstances. Central R. Co. of N.J. v. Dept. of Pub. Utilities, supra ; Atlantic City Sewerage Co. v. Board of Public Utility Commissioners, 128 N.J.L. 359, 367 ( Sup. Ct. 1942), affirmed 129 N.J.L. 401 ( E. & A. 1943). However, the authority to allow rehearings does not constitute unlimited sanction for an indiscriminate grant of rehearings by the Board, nor a method for circumvention of the orderly statutory procedures for initiating rate hearings, detailed in R.S. 48:2-19 and R.S. 48:2-21. Where the petition for rehearing seeks to reopen the matter for the purpose of introducing evidence of changed circumstances, the Board's action in allowing or denying the rehearing is discretionary and may be set aside only for abuse of the delegated legal discretion. Cf. Grogan v. DeSapio, 11 N.J. 308, 321 (1953); Reid Development Corp. v. Parsippany-Troy Hills Tp., 10 N.J. 229, 237 (1952). The following expression of this court in In re New Jersey Power & Light Co., 9 N.J. 498, 527 (1952), may be adapted here to emphasize the letter and spirit of the statute in this respect:    Where by reason of circumstances beyond the control of the Utility and unforeseeable at the time of the rate order it becomes apparent that the existing rates are insufficient to provide a fair rate of return, and rates reasonable both to the public utility and the public, the remedy is not by way of invalidation of the past order on the basis of the subsequent events    but by way of filing new schedules of rates in accordance with the statutory requirements. (Emphasis supplied.) The Company's original petition for rehearing was timely, as hereinbefore determined. This in itself does not mean that the denial of rehearing constituted an abuse of discretion on the part of the Board. If the Company's allegations of changed conditions were true, then the evidence introduced in the hearings antedating the rate order of August 15, 1951 may have been so obsolete by September 18, 1952, as to be rendered worthless as a basis for a determination at that time of rate base, operating expenses or rate of return. The delay in moving the petition for rehearing multiplied the difficulties of the Board, and the task of the appellate court now called upon to review the original rate order of August 15, 1951 some 2 1/2 years after the proceedings were initiated and over 1 1/2 years after the decision of the Board. Such delay where the statute clearly provides an admonition to the Board to determine a rate case within six months from its inception is not fair to the public and may in some instances result in loss of revenues to the public utility involved. In the present case, however, the Company itself materially contributed to the delay for it allowed eight months to pass before it requested the Board to take action on its petition for rehearing. Neither the Company nor the Board explained that delay when queried thereon by this court on the oral argument of this appeal. Under these circumstances and the fact that the Company at any time could have filed new schedules under R.S. 48:2-21, supra, the denial of rehearing by the Board cannot be characterized as prejudicial to the Company. This does not prejudice the Company's right to introduce in a new rate hearing any evidence of changed circumstances after the original rate order of August 15, 1951. There was no hearing on the merits relating to such subsequent events and factors. Orderly administration of justice requires adherence to definite principles. If the Company believes itself prejudiced by delay, it has only to recollect that at no time since August 15, 1951 has it been deprived of its statutory right to file new schedules except by its own conduct. The Board's order of September 18, 1952, denying the Company's petitions for rehearing, is affirmed.