Court Opinion

ID: 9693802
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 17:00:58.1079+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:19:50.486101
License: Public Domain

NIGRO, Justice,
concurring.
The issue before the Court is whether Bessie 8 furnishes utility service “to or for the public” and is thus a public utility subject to regulation. I write separately because the majority’s opinion does not address the line of Pennsylvania cases setting forth and applying the test for when a utility service is furnished “to or for the public.” Having considered the applicable authority, I concur in the result reached by the majority.
In the leading case of Drexelbrook Associates v. Pennsylvania Public Utility Comm’n, 418 Pa. 430, 212 A.2d 237 (1965), the Supreme Court considered whether utility services that an apartment complex proposed to furnish its tenants would be service “to or for the public” within the meaning of the Public Utility Code. The Court looked to earlier cases that addressed whether utility service was public or private in nature. It quoted the Superior Court’s statement that:
[t]he public or private character of the enterprise does not depend upon the number of persons by whom it is used, but upon whether or not it is open to the use and service of all members of the public who may require it.
418 Pa. at 435, 212 A.2d at 239 (quoting Borough of Ambridge v. P.S.C., 108 Pa.Super. 298, 304, 165 A. 47, 49 (1933)). The Court cited other cases that considered whether the service was open to the indefinite public to determine its nature. See id. (citing Aronimink Tramp. Co. v. P.S.C., 111 Pa.Super. 414, 170 A. 375 (1934) and Overlook Dev. Co. v. P.S.C., 101 Pa.Super. 217, affd, 306 Pa. 43, 158 A. 869 (1932)). Applying these principles to the facts before it, the Court held that the apartment’s proposed service would be private in nature. Id. *146at 436, 212 A.2d at 240. The Court reasoned that the only-persons who could demand utility service were those in a landlord-tenant relationship with Drexelbrook Associates. Id.
After Drexelbrook, the Commonwealth Court considered whether a corporation was furnishing gas to the public for purposes of regulation in Dunmire Gas Company v. Pennsylvania Public Utility Comm’n, 50 Pa.Commw. 600, 413 A.2d 473 (1980). Dunmire Gas Company initially wholesaled gas to two gas companies. It then reduced its wholesale sales because it had less capacity and began providing gas primarily to residential customers. Dunmire’s customers complained about the quality of its service and the Public Utility Commission investigated the company. Dunmire maintained that it did not provide service to the public and thus was not subject to regulation. Applying the test in Drexelbrook, the Commonwealth Court found that although Dunmire did not solicit residential customers, it provided gas service to the extent of its capacity to an indefinitely open class of customers. Id. at 602-03, 413 A.2d at 474. The company placed no restriction upon whom it served and thus was subject to regulation. Id.
The Commonwealth Court also evaluated the nature of telecommunications companies’ services in Wattman v. Pennsylvania Public Utility Comm’n, 142 Pa.Commw. 44, 596 A.2d 1221 (1991), ajfd, 533 Pa. 304, 621 A.2d 994 (1993). The Public Utility Commission granted two companies certificates of public convenience to offer telecommunications services. A group of protestors maintained that since the companies’ services would be used primarily by individual commercial entities, the companies would not serve the public and are not public utilities. Applying Drexelbrook, the court found that the Public Utility Commission properly concluded that the companies were public utilities. Id. at 51-52, 596 A.2d at 1224-25. Their services were offered and available to the public at large. The public nature of the services were not changed by the fact that the only entities that would desire them were those engaged in high volume business. Relevant *147to the present case, the Commonwealth Court stated that the companies’ facilities were not designed or constructed to serve select groups of individuals but were intended for any member of the public. Id1
In light of this authority, I agree with the majority that Bessie 8’s service is private in nature. Like in Drexelbrook, the only one who can demand utility service from Bessie 8 is Bethlehem Steel — the entity with a contractual relationship with Bessie 8. Unlike in Wattman, Bessie 8’s facilities were designed and constructed to serve a select entity. Bessie 8’s service is not available to the public at large and Bessie 8 is thus not a public utility subject to regulation. In addition, I agree with Judge Pellegrini’s conclusion below that public utility service cannot be found based solely upon the fact that one of the four joint venturers’ presidents, acting on his own behalf, unsuccessfully solicited the business of one customer.
Accordingly, I concur in the result reached by the majority.
NEWMAN, J., joins in this concurring opinion.

. The majority states in footnote 8 that it disagrees with the statement in Wattman that the character of a business does not depend upon the number of persons who actually use the service. It states that by definition, a single user is not the public. Pennsylvania courts, however, have consistently stated over more than sixty years that the nature of a utility service does not depend upon the number of persons who use it, but rather depends upon whether it is open to the indefinite public. In addition, the majority then appears to somewhat inconsistently state that if Bessie 8 engaged in activity designed to secure other customers, it could be serving the public. Majority Opinion at 1113-14.