Court Opinion

ID: 9794816
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 03:12:16.283931+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:20:53.158362
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Pringle
dissenting:
I dissent. In my view, the majority opinion puts form above substance, technicality above logic. As required by the statutes, the parties seeking the increase in insurance rates had filed the requested rates with the Com*287missioner of Insurance. Everybody knew what these rates were. It was the Commissioner’s statutory duty, among other things, to determine whether the proposed rates were “excessive, inadequate, or unfairly discriminatory.” His duty was not to act as a quasi-legislative body and set rates, but to act as a quasi-judicial body and determine whether the proposed rates were, as we have pointed out, excessive, inadequate or discriminatory. Whether or not he held a hearing, his duty with respect to the filed rates was quasi-judicial.
I cannot, therefore, agree to any interpretation of these statutes which would apply one standard to objections filed to rates, on the ground they are excessive, before the Commissioner approves those rates, and a different standard to the same objections when they are filed after the Commissioner approves the rates.
The very same evidence which would show either reasonableness or excessiveness of the proposed rates would be material and controlling on this issue whether introduced before the Commissioner before his approval of the rates or after his approval. I would not stultify judicial review of the reasonableness or excessiveness of the rates in question by the technical interpretation which the majority today gives to the statute. To me, the situation here resembles the controversy concerning Tweedledum and Tweedledee. I would reverse and order the Commissioner to hold a hearing under the Administrative Code upon the objections already filed rather than require the objectors to file a new protest in order to obtain such a hearing as the majority opinion requires.