Opinion ID: 2398514
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Revenue Adjustment for Increased Sales

Text: In adjusting the test-year operating revenues to arrive at the pro forma figure for that category, the commission added    $23,700 representing a 2% increase which is considered a normal based on prior years experience with this Company. The company contests this finding on two grounds. First, it is asserted that, while such an adjustment may have a sound theoretical basis, it is founded, in this case, upon the unsubstantiated assumption that a 2 percent increase in revenues will increase the company's return beyond set limits. Second, it is alleged that the 2 percent does not reflect the company's actual past experience and that in the previous 3 years, increases of 1.3 percent per annum were realized. We have held on numerous occasions that the commission must facilitate this court's appellate role by setting forth sufficiently the findings and the evidentiary facts upon which its decision rests. We will not speculate thereon nor search the record for supporting evidence. Rhode Island Consumers' Council v. Smith, supra at 278, 302 A.2d at 763. In the instant case, the projected 2 percent increase in revenues recited by the commission is supported by nothing more than the assertion that this reflects past experience. Without facts to corroborate this finding or references to places in the record where such facts may be found, we cannot fulfill our function of deciding whether the commission's decision was lawful and reasonable in this respect. Town of Jamestown v. Kennelly, 81 R.I. 177, 180-81, 100 A.2d 649, 651 (1953). It is not our function to decide which version of the facts is the correct one. Therefore we will remand this portion of the case to the commission in order to enable that body to fulfill its obligation in a supplemental decision. United. Transit Co. v. Nunes, 99 R.I. 501, 504-05, 209 A.2d 215, 217-18 (1965).