Opinion ID: 2348955
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: the controlling guidelines

Text: In passing upon the legality and reasonableness of the commission's decision and order we do not engage in fact-finding. General Laws 1956 (1969 Reenactment) § 39-5-3, as amended. That is the commission's role; ours is to determine whether the commission's decision and order are lawful and reasonable and whether its findings are fairly and substantially supported by legal evidence and sufficiently specific to enable us to ascertain if the facts upon which they are premised afford a reasonable basis for the result reached. Town of Jamestown v. Kennelly, 81 R.I. 177, 180-81, 100 A.2d 649, 651 (1953). This is not to say that the necessary factual determinations must be set out in precise or specific language, or that they may not be fairly and reasonably implied from the commission's language and actions. United Transit Co. v. Public Utility Hearing Board, 96 R.I. 435, 445, 192 A.2d 423, 428-29 (1963); Yellow Cab Co. v. Public Utility Hearing Board, 79 R.I. 507, 511, 90 A.2d 726, 728 (1952). But if it becomes impossible for us properly to fulfill our assigned function because of the commission's failure to set forth sufficiently the findings and the evidentiary facts upon which it rests its decisions, or the reasons or true bases for its conclusions, we will not speculate thereon nor search the record for supporting evidence or reasons. Neither will we decide for ourselves what is proper in the circumstances. Instead, we will remand the case in order to afford the commission an opportunity to fulfill its obligations in a supplementary or additional decision. United Transit Co. v. Nunes, 99 R.I. 501, 504-05, 209 A.2d 215, 217-18 (1965); New England Tel. & Tel. Co. v. Kennelly, 81 R.I. 1, 9-10, 98 A.2d 835, 839 (1953). It is within the framework of these general principles that we examine the commission's decision and order of May 4, 1972.