Court Opinion

ID: 9557462
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 16:50:27.883511+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:05:51.777076
License: Public Domain

CROCKETT, Chief Justice
(concurring specially).
I concur except that I do not agree that the order “must be set aside in its entirety” if this is meant to say that there must be a new proceeding and/or a complete new order made. I am aware of the authorities cited for. that statement in the main opinion but see nothing therein to indicate that the point under consideration has ever been at critical issue and passed upon. I agree entirely that we should not attempt to intrude into the detail of administering the duties of the Commission. However, notwithstanding what was said in the cited case, Buckingham Transp. Co. v. Industrial Comm, et al., and other authorities, I think the proper application of the statute is that if there are severable and independent aspects of an order made by the Commission, some of which are correct and others erroneous, this court can and should affirm the correct ones and direct that the erroneous ones be corrected. See the case of State ex rel. Kansas City Terminal R. Co. v. Public Service Comm., 308 Mo. 359, 272 5.W. 957, at page 963, where the Missouri Supreme Court, under a similar statute said, where “the order * * * is separable into a number of distinct orders which are in no wise dependent upon each other * * * there can be no reason why a reviewing court should not affirm such of the orders as it finds to be lawful and reasonable, and set aside the others.”
A bit of imagination will produce many examples in which requiring the court fci *129nullify an entire order because parts of it are erroneous would be folly. For instance, assume that quite a number of carriers are involved in contesting rights over numerous routes and several different classes of commodities; and that at the conclusion of an extensive hearing the Commission made an order entirely correct except as to one of the carriers, or a route or a commodity. What good reason could there be for voiding the entire order? And how much more sensible and practical it would be for the court to point out wherein the order is justified and wherein it is in error, and direct that the corrections be made.
Legislative enactments must of necessity be general and it is the responsibility of those administering the law to so interpret and apply them as to make them practical in operation in conformity with the intent and purpose for which they were enacted. The purpose of Sec. 54 — 7-16, U.C.A.1953, which provides that this Court shall “enter judgment either affirming or setting aside the order or decision of the commission” is simply to confer upon the Court the power to affirm actions of the Commission which appear to be correct, or to set aside those which are not, whichever it deems appropriate in the premises upon the review provided by that statute.
That this court has done so as to orders of the Public Service Commission, see Lake Shore Motor Coach Lines, Inc. v. Bennett et al., 8 Utah 2d 293, 333 P.2d 1061. In the case of Los Angeles & S. L. R. Co. v. Public Utilities Comm., 80 Utah 455, 15 P.2d 358, the court did not “affirm” or “reverse” the order of the Commission but remanded the cause for a further hearing as to whether the maintenance of a telephone at the St. John station would not satisfy the requirements of adequate service and permit the railroad to discontinue keeping its agent there for certain months of the year. In Los Angeles & Salt Lake R. Co. v. Public Service Comm., 121 Utah 209, 240 P. 2d 493, on rehearing at page 217, Utah Report, at page 355, Pacific Report, upon stipulation of counsel, this court affirmed in part and modified in part the order of the Public Service Commission.
That this court has also done so as to orders of the Industrial Commission, where the statute as to review (35-1-85, U.C.A. 1953) is identical, see the following cases: Snyder Mines, Inc. v. Industrial Comm., 117 Utah 471, 217 P.2d 560; Pacific Employers Ins. Co. et al. v. Industrial Comm., 108 Utah 123, 157 P.2d 800; Teamsters Local Union No. 222 v. Strevell-Paterson Hardware Co., 110 Utah 338, 174 P.2d 164; Campton et al. v. Industrial Comm., 1944, 106 Utah 571, 151 P.2d 189, 154 A.L.R. 691; Earley v. Industrial Comm., 1 Utah 2d 208, 265 P.2d 390.
I see no reason whatsoever that the mere fact that the statute refers to the *130“order or decision” in the singular requires its meaning be so rigidly restricted as to compel striking down the entire order if any part is deemed to be erroneous. I think the sensible and practical method of performing our duty under that statute, where there are plainly severable portions of an order, is to affirm those-parts of the order that are correct, and to direct the Commission to set aside those parts of the order which are inconsistent with the opinion of this Court.
WADE, J., concurs with the result of the main opinion and also the opinion of CROCKETT, C. J.