Court Opinion

ID: 3616127
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2016-07-05 23:59:12.324186+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T14:24:44.494729
License: Public Domain

This court decided in the Quinby case (Matter of Quinby v.Public Service Commission, 223 N.Y. 244) that it was not the intention of the legislature by the Public Service Commissions Law to confer upon the public service commissions jurisdiction and power to raise the rate of fare that can be charged by a street railroad corporation to an amount in excess of the amount at which it had been expressly *Page 230 
limited by agreement between the street railroad corporation and the local authorities of the municipality in which the corporation is maintaining its road. In doing so, this court say: "In the absence of clear and definite language conferring without ambiguity jurisdiction upon the public service commission to increase rates of fare agreed upon by the street railroad and the local authorities we should not unnecessarily hold that the legislature has intended to delegate any of its powers in the matter, whatever its powers may be."
The decision in that case was confined to holding that the legislature did not intend to delegate its power, if any, relating to the increase of rates of fare of street railroads so agreed upon, to the public service commissions. Whether the legislature has the power, directly or by delegation to the commissions, to increase the rates of fare so agreed upon, was not passed upon in that case.
The case now before us involves a gas corporation and a price to be charged for gas in excess of a maximum price fixed and determined upon as a consideration for granting a franchise to the appellant by the local authorities and not an increase in the rate of fare to be charged by a street railroad corporation in excess of an amount fixed by a similar agreement. It is now sought to have this court hold that although the legislature did not intend to confer jurisdiction and power on the public service commissions to increase rates of fare agreed upon between street railroad corporations and the local authorities, it was the intention of the legislature to confer jurisdiction and power on such commissions to increase the price of gas similarly agreed upon between a gas company and the local authorities.
If such decision is to be made the difference of intention should be found in the act in "clear and definite language."
I do not find any substantial basis on which to distinguish the decision in the Quinby case to permit of *Page 231 
making a different decision in this case. The general power of the public service commissions relating to a gas corporation is the same as that relating to a street railroad corporation.
The Public Service Commissions Law provides that the public service commission for each district shall possess the powers and duties in the act specified, and also, "All powers necessary or proper to enable it to carry out the purposes" of the act. (Sec. 4.)
The Public Service Commissions Law (§ 26, § 49, subd. 1) and the Railroad Law (§ 181) deal with maximum rates of fare established by statute but make no reference in terms to rates established by agreement with local authorities. (Matter ofQuinby v. Public Service Commission, supra.) The same is true of the Public Service Commissions Law (§ 66, § 71 and § 72) and the Transportation Corporations Law (§ 61).
In this case as in the Quinby case the question involved is the jurisdiction of the public service commissions to grant the particular relief to which the corporation involved deems itself entitled. The reasonableness of the rate of fare or of the price of gas to which the corporations respectively deem themselves entitled, has not been controverted in either case.
A comparison of the provisions of the Public Service Commissions Law relating specially to the power of the commissions over rates of fare to be charged by street railroad corporations, with those specially relating to such power over the price to be charged for gas, will show that the legislature did not clearly or otherwise express a different intention about the power of the commissions relating thereto. Section 49 specially relating to rates of fare to be charged by street and other railroad corporations is as follows:
"1. Whenever either commission shall be of opinion, after a hearing had upon its own motion or upon a complaint, *Page 232 
that the rates, fares or charges demanded, exacted, charged or collected by any common carrier, railroad corporation or street railroad corporation subject to its jurisdiction for the transportation of persons or property within the state, or that the regulations or practices of such common carrier, railroad corporation or street railroad corporation affecting such rates are unjust, unreasonable, unjustly discriminatory or unduly preferential, or in any wise in violation of any provision of law, or that the maximum rates, fares or charges, chargeable by any such common carrier, railroad or street railroad corporation are insufficient to yield reasonable compensation for the service rendered, and are unjust and unreasonable, the commission shall with due regard among other things to a reasonable average return upon the value of the property actually used in the public service and to the necessity of making reservation out of income for surplus and contingencies, determine the just and reasonable rates, fares and charges to be thereafter observed and in force as the maximum to be charged for the service to be performed, notwithstanding that a higher rate, fare or charge has been heretofore authorized by statute, and shall fix the same by order to be served upon all common carriers, railroad corporations or street railroad corporations by whom such rates, fares and charges are thereafter to be observed. * * *."
The sections specifically relating to the price to be charged for gas are as follows:
"* * *. Whenever the commission shall be of opinion, after a hearing had upon its own motion or upon complaint, that the rates or charges or the acts or regulations of any such person, corporation or municipality are unjust, unreasonable, unjustly discriminatory or unduly preferential or in any wise in violation of any provision of law, the commission shall determine and prescribe the just and reasonable rates and charges *Page 233 
thereafter to be in force for the service to be furnished notwithstanding that a higher rate or charge has heretofore been authorized by statute, and the just and reasonable acts and regulations to be done and observed; * * *." (§ 66, subd. 5.)
"Upon the complaint in writing of the mayor of a city, the trustees of a village or the town board of a town in which a person or corporation is authorized to manufacture, sell or supply gas or electricity for heat, light or power, or upon the complaint in writing of not less than one hundred customers or purchasers of such gas or electricity in cities of the first or second class, or of not less than fifty in cities of the third class, or of not less than twenty-five elsewhere, or upon complaint of a gas corporation or electrical corporation supplying said gas or electricity, as to the illuminating power, purity, pressure or price of gas, * * *, the proper commission shall investigate as to the cause of such complaint. * * *." (§ 71.)
"Before proceeding under a complaint presented as provided in section seventy one, the commission shall cause notice of such complaint, and the purpose thereof, to be served upon the person or corporation affected thereby. Such person or corporation shall have an opportunity to be heard in respect to the matters complained of at a time and place to be specified in such notice. An investigation may be instituted by the commission as to any matter of which complaint may be made, as provided in section seventy-one of this chapter, or to enable it to ascertain the facts requisite to the exercise of any power conferred upon it. After a hearing and after such an investigation as shall have been made by the commission or its officers, agents, examiners or inspectors, the commission within lawful limits may, by order, fix the maximum price of gas or electricity not exceeding that fixed by statute to be charged by such *Page 234 
corporation or person, for the service to be furnished; and may order such improvement in the manufacture, distribution or supply of gas, in the manufacture, transmission or supply of electricity, or in the methods employed by such person or corporation, as will in its judgment be adequate, just and reasonable. The price fixed by the commission under this section or under subdivision five of section sixty-six shall be the maximum price to be charged by such person, corporation or municipality for gas or electricity for the service to be furnished within the territory and for a period to be fixed by the commission in the order, not exceeding three years except in the case of a sliding scale, and thereafter until the commission shall, upon its own motion or upon the complaint of any corporation, person, or municipality interested, fix a higher or lower maximum price of gas or electricity to be thereafter charged. In determining the price to be charged for gas or electricity the commission may consider all facts which in its judgment have any bearing upon a proper determination of the question although not set forth in the complaint and not within the allegations contained therein, with due regard among other things to a reasonable average return upon capital actually expended and to the necessity of making reservations out of income for surplus and contingencies." (§ 72.)
Where the maximum rate of fare on street railroads and the price of gas have each been fixed by agreement with local authorities the public service commissions are equally restricted in their power and jurisdiction on their own motion or on complaint to authorize an increase of the same.
It is suggested that no statute has fixed the price of gas in South Glens Falls. It is for the reason that the price of gas has been fixed by agreement with the local authorities that the question involved on this appeal is controlled by the decision in the Quinby case. The *Page 235 
decision in that case was expressly placed upon the ground that authority is not given to the commission by the legislature to increase the amount of fare then in controversy above the maximum amount agreed upon as a condition of granting the railroad franchise.
It is also suggested that the constitutional provision (Constitution State of New York, art. 3, section 18) providing for the consent of certain owners of property and of the local authorities before a law shall authorize the construction of a street railroad, gives the commissioners greater power over the fare to be charged by a street railroad corporation than it has over the price to be charged for gas by a gas corporation.
The Constitution provides: "No law shall authorize the construction or operation of a street railroad except upon the condition that the consent of the owners of one-half in value of the property bounded on, and the consent also of the local authorities having the control of, that portion of a street or highway upon which it is proposed to construct or operate such railroad be first obtained, or in case the consent of such property owners cannot be obtained, the appellate division of the supreme court, in the department in which it is proposed to be constructed, may, upon application, appoint three commissioners who shall determine, after a hearing of all parties interested, whether such railroad ought to be constructed or operated, and their determination, confirmed by the court, may be taken in lieu of the consent of the property owners."
The constitutional provision prohibits any law authorizing the construction or operation of a street railroad except upon the condition therein stated but it does not in any way prescribe or limit the fare to be charged by a street railroad corporation. It does not in any way affect the question now before us relating to the power of the public service commission to increase the maximum rate of fare to be charged by a street railroad corporation, *Page 236 
or the price of gas to be charged by a gas corporation, over and above the amount agreed upon by the street railroad or gas company respectively and the municipality.
The decision in the Quinby case stands upon the words that I have quoted herein. It does not depend upon the constitutional provision. It is not affected by the constitutional provision unless perchance we reason as did the appellant in that case as recited in the opinion of Judge POUND as follows: "It would be a vain thing if the consent were placed under the protection of the Constitution, and the conditions which induced such consent were immediately subject to extinguishment by the legislature for that would mock the very purpose of the constitutional provision and permit almost any interference by the legislature; that the local authorities in this matter are supreme over the public service commission by virtue of the Constitution; that the obligation of a street surface railroad to carry passengers for an agreed fare may in a constitutional sense be neither a contract nor private property, but it is imposed by virtue of a delegated power, delegated by the people — not by the legislature — to the local authorities, and is thus beyond legislative recall." (p. 262.)
It was the contention of the appellant in that case that the legislature has no power in any case to increase rates of fare agreed upon by a street railroad and the local authorities. That question, I repeat, was not decided in that case. The language last above quoted was not adopted by the court or by the writer of the opinion.
Both cases should, in my judgment, stand upon the language quoted from the Quinby opinion to the effect that the legislature did not intend to delegate its power in cases where the rates of fare or price of gas have been established by and between the street railroad or gas companies respectively and the municipalities.
If we stand upon a distinction in the power of the *Page 237 
commissions as proposed, it may lead to the conclusion that so far as street railroads are concerned the legislature has no power to interfere in case of contracts such as that in Rochester and others of like effect because as suggested in the opinion in the Quinby case and as claimed by the appellants in that case, such contracts have passed beyond legislative recall.
The order should be affirmed, with costs.
HISCOCK, Ch. J., CUDDEBACK and McLAUGHLIN, JJ. (the latter in opinion in which also HISCOCK, Ch. J., concurs) concur with CRANE, J.; CHASE, J., reads dissenting opinion, in which COLLIN, J., concurs; HOGAN, J., dissents generally.
Order reversed, etc.