Court Opinion

ID: 9854033
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 05:59:33.776227+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:22:53.159086
License: Public Domain

Hill, Justice,
concurring.
I concur in the judgment of affirmance. I am unable to concur in the statement of the majority that "Of course, review of the Commission’s order is by trial de novo. . . Ga. Public Service Comm. v. General Tel. Co. of the Southeast, 227 Ga. 727 (182 SE2d 793) (1971).”
The Public Service Commission is a constitutional body created for the regulation of public utilities and vested with the jurisdiction, powers and duties provided by laws enacted by the General Assembly. Code Ann. § 2-2703. The Public Service Commission established the rate structure here in issue after hearing testimony which required 1,002 pages to transcribe.
As the majority opinion recognizes, rate-making is a legislative act. Yet here the superior court reviewed the Commission’s order by trial de novo. The matter was heard de novo apparently with the consent of the parties. In any event, no enumeration of error has been directed to this point, and hence I concur in the judgment of the court.
However, for the reasons stated in Statesboro Tel. Co. v. Georgia Public Service Comm., 235 Ga. 179 (1) (219 SE2d 127) (1975), decided after entry of the order of the superior court here on appeal, I do not believe that Ga. Public Service Comm. v. General Tel. Co. of the Southeast, supra, requires trial de novo by the superior court of every order of the Public Service Commission.
In my view, the Public Service Commission is vested by the Constitution with jurisdiction of utility rate-making. In my view, utility rate-making should not be subject to trial de novo by the superior court. Trial de novo is not required by law (Statesboro Tel. Co. v. Ga. *565Public Service Comm., supra), and is unmanageable in practice. See my concurring opinion in Ga. Power Co. v. Allied Chemical Corp., 233 Ga. 558 (212 SE2d 628) (1975). In recognition of this, the law has been amended so as to eliminate such trials de novo. Ga. L. 1975, p. 404.
By Ga. L. 1975, p. 404, the Public Service Commission was partially placed under the Administrative Procedure Act. The APA provides for review of agency decisions by the superior court. Code Ann. § 3A-120. Because the APA provides a remedy for review, there is an adequate remedy at law and hence suit in equity is, in my view, no longer an available remedy for review of the Public Service Commission’s utility rate-making decisions. That is to say, in my view Ga. L. 1975, p. 404, had the effect of overruling the second division of Ga. Public Service Comm. v. Atlanta Gas Light Co., 205 Ga. 863 (55 SE2d 618) (1949).
The purpose of this concurring opinion therefore is not to urge a change in the law governing rate-making but is to urge caution in requiring trials de novo from decisions of governmental bodies where the only means of reviewing such decisions is by a suit in equity in the superior court.