Opinion ID: 2050767
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 14

Heading: Present subsections (1) and (2) of sec. 196.50, Stats.

Text: (1) Certificate of necessity. No license, permit, or franchise shall be granted to own, operate, manage, or control any plant or equipment for the conveyance of telephone messages, or for the production, transmission, delivery, or furnishing of heat, light, water, or power in any municipality, where there is in operation under an indeterminate permit a public utility engaged in similar service, without first securing from the commission a declaration, after a public hearing of all parties interested, that public convenience and necessity require such second public utility. This subsection shall not prevent or impose any condition upon the extension of any telephone toll line from any municipality into or through any municipality for the purpose of connecting with any telephone exchange in such municipality or connecting with any other telephone line or system. (2) Telephones, extension. No public utility furnishing telephone service shall install or extend any telephone exchange for furnishing local service in any town where there is a public utility engaged in similar service, without first having served notice in writing upon the commission and such other public utility of the installation or extension of such exchange which it proposes to make, or make such installation or extensions if the commission, within twenty days after the service of such notice, shall, upon investigation, find and declare that public convenience and necessity do not require the installation or extensions of such exchange. Any public utility already engaged in furnishing local service to subscribers within any city or village may extend its exchange within such city or village without the authority of the commission. Any public utility operating any telephone exchange in any city or village shall, on demand, extend its lines to the limits of such city or village for the purposes mentioned and subject to the conditions and requirements prescribed in sections 196.04 and 196.19 subsections (4) and (5). BROADFOOT, J. ( dissenting ). I cannot agree with the majority of the court in this case. The Public Service Commission is an administrative agency and it has only such power as has been delegated to it by the legislature. It cannot increase its power and authority by rule or by its own construction of the statutes. To justify its order in the present case it has selected sentences from various statutes, patched them together and claims the result covers the subject. It cannot point to a clear directive from the legislature authorizing its action. The legislature has clearly defined the duty of utilities to extend services within villages and cities and the authority of the commission to require such extensions. It could, if requested and if it deemed advisable, clearly express the procedure to be followed and the authority of the commission in the matter of extension of service in towns. If the commission deems it advisable and necessary in the public interest to do what it wishes to do in this case, I think it should apply to the legislature for a clear directive rather than to the courts. Specifically, I cannot agree that amended sec. 1797 m -74 (now sec. 196.50), Stats., localized a franchise or caused franchise benefits to be given on a town basis and consequently an implied correlative duty arose to provide service anywhere in a town. Such reasoning is not sustained by the Lodi Case. The language in Milwaukee v. Public Service Comm. (1942), 241 Wis. 249, 5 N. W. (2d) 800, referring to South Shore Utility Co. v. Railroad Comm. (1932), 207 Wis. 95, 240 N. W. 784, which the majority now wishes to withdraw, correctly stated the law. I would reverse the judgment of the circuit court and direct a dismissal of the petition.