Court Opinion

ID: 9587556
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:23:39.382801+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:00:19.452964
License: Public Domain

Head, Justice,
dissenting. The transportation as a common carrier of persons and property for hire by motor vehicle on the public highways of this State is a business vitally affecting the rights, interest, and welfare of every citizen, and the public policy of this State requires strict regulation of this business, which regulation has been entrusted to the Georgia Public Service Commission by the Constitution and laws of this State.
The Motor Common Carriers Act of 1931 appears as Chapter 68-6 of the Code of 1933. Section 68-604 provides: “No motor common carrier shall, except as hereinafter provided, operate without first obtaining from the Commission, after hearing under the provisions of this Chapter, a certificate of public convenience and necessity, pursuant to findings to the effect that the public interest requires such operation.” (Italics supplied.) Section 68-607 provides that, “The Commission may, at any time after notice and opportunity to he heard and for reasonable cause, suspend, revoke, alter, or amend any certificate. . .” (Italics supplied.) Section 68-608 provides that a certificate may be transferred or hypothecated upon application to and approval by the Commission.
In the present case it appears that in 1950 Southeastern Motor Lines, Inc., transferred its right under a certificate of convenience and necessity to operate as a motor common carrier to the Miller Bus Line; that Miller’s right to operate under the certificate was *432suspended by the Commission in 1952; that in January, 1956, Miller having relinquished his rights, the Commission reinstated and reissued the certificate to Southeastern Motor Lines, Inc.; and that, thereafter, Southeastern transferred its certificate of convenience and necessity to Atlantic Stages, Inc., and this transfer was approved by the Georgia Public Service Commission without a hearing.
The majority opinion states that the Commission had authority to revoke the certificate in so far as Miller’s right to operate was concerned, but that they only suspended the certificate, and that the question of public convenience and necessity having been determined at the time the certificate was issued, the Commission was not required to consider again this question before granting the transfer from Southeastern Motor Lines, Inc., to Atlantic Stages, Inc. This ruling is a flat contradiction of the statute. The requirements of § 68-604, that no motor common carrier shall operate without obtaining from the Commission, after hearing, a certificate of public convenience and necessity, is not limited by its terms to the original grant of such a certificate, but applies alike in each and all instances, whether the certificate, having been suspended, is to> be reinstated, or being effective, is to be transferred. The transfer of a certificate six years subsequently to the original grant does not relate to the conditions that existed at the time the certificate was issued. There is simply no basis in law or in fact to sustain a conclusion that the requirements of § 68-609 having once been complied with, can be ignored and disregarded six years later, or for all time to come. The transfer of the certificate from Southeastern to Atlantic without a hearing by the Commission is, in my opinion, a definite violation of the law, and void.
Any technical or finespun definition of the word “route” which fails to take into consideration the focal points involved, is wholly devoid of any practical application of the term. It is from the towns and cities that the bulk of the business of a motor common carrier originates, and where, as in this case, it is shown that a motor carrier of persons is operating at a loss, the Commission can not justify, under § 68-609, the grant of another certificate of convenience and necessity, simply because different roads may be traveled in serving the same cities and towns.
*433Where existing transportation service is reduced, with the consent and approval of the Commission, there can be no basis for granting an additional certificate of convenience and necessity as related to the territory involved. The majority opinion is therefore correct in so far as it holds that the Commission was without authority to grant a certificate of convenience and necessity for additional service as related to the cities of Barnes-ville and Griffin.
“The object of all legal investigation is the discovery of truth. The rules of evidence are framed with a view to this prominent end, seeking always for pure sources and the highest evidence.” Code § 38-101. Code § 93-505 provides that the Public Service Commission shall have power to issue subpoenas for the attendance of witnesses, with power to compel their attendance, “and said court shall have power to punish for contempt as in other cases of refusal to> obey the process and order of such court.” Code § 93-506 authorizes the Commission to compel the giving of testimony. Numerous sections of the Code provide for a hearing by the Commission (see §§ 68-504, 68-507, 68-607, 68-611, 68-618, 68-621), and there is simply no basis for any contention that a hearing by the Commission is not a “legal investigation,” the object of which is the discovery of the truth. The object of the discovery of truth in such legal investigations by the Commission is not restricted, modified, or repealed, by Code § 93-501, which states in part that, “the Commission shall not be bound by the strict technical rules of pleading and evidence, but it may exercise such discretion as will facilitate its efforts to ascertain the facts bearing upon the right and justice of the matters before it.” Since “facts” are “truth,” and truth must include the facts, no authority has been granted to the Commission to depart from the object of all legal investigation, the discovery of truth.
It is, or should be, known that where a party, or his counsel representing him, prepares an affidavit in the interest of the party, that only such matters as the party or his counsel deems of value to his cause will be included therein. Such an affidavit may be true in so far as the matters stated therein are concerned, and at the same time constitute worse than a half-truth or a misrepresentation, because of the matters omitted therefrom, *434which would be adverse to the party offering it and directly beneficial to the opposite party. The introduction of affidavits defeats the right of cross-examination, which frequently leads to the discovery of the whole truth, and affidavits are not admissible where a substantial right in a legal investigation is to be finally determined, until reversed or set aside. There can be no question but that the granting, or refusal to grant, a certificate of convenience and necessity under the Motor Common Carriers Act involves a substantial right. Any judicial fiction as to the nature and character of the duties performed by the Public Service Commission can not destroy the fact that in the conduct of hearings the Commission is conducting a legal investigation, where substantial rights are involved, and the general rules of evidence applicable to legal investigations in this State should apply thereto. Faircloth v. Taylor, 147 Ga. 787 (95 S. E. 689); Camp v. Camp, 213 Ga. 65 (97 S. E. 2d 125).
It appears that the affidavits introduced by the applicant, Atlantic Stages, Inc., were considered by the Commission, and therefore its decision was based in part upon illegal and incompetent evidence, and the grant of a certificate to the applicant in this case should be declared void and of no effect.
For the reasons stated, I dissent from the rulings in divisions 1, 2, and 4 of the majority opinion. I am authorized to say that Mr. Chief Justice Duckworth concurs in this dissent.