Court Opinion

ID: 9827311
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 17:24:08.929504+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:42:29.022114
License: Public Domain

On Motion for Rehearing.
 Appellants present an able motion for rehearing in which they urge forcefully that the rules and exceptions, promulgated by the Railroad Commission after a full hearing upon the merits of a controversy before three experts, should not be set aside by a district court by injunction upon a sworn petition, or ex parte hearing, and that article 6656, R. S., discloses an intention on the part of the Legislature that the Commission’s orders should remain in full force unless and until finally set aside after a determination of the case upon its merits in a court of competent jurisdiction. It is not our function to pass upon the wisdom of legislative action. There may be cogent reasons for the contention urged by appellants, but their remedy is with the Legislature, not with the courts. The language of the Supreme Court, quoted in our opinion herein, interprets the provision of article 6657 that an action to set aside an order of the Commission “shall be tried and determined as other civil causes in said court,” as meaning, in our opinion, that except as to the burden of proof, there shall be no difference between such suit and any other civil suit, from the time the cause is filed or presented to the court until final judgment is rendered therein. The meaning of the words “tried and determined” cannot, we think, be limited so as to uphold a ruling of the Commission until a final judgment is rendered thereon after a hearing upon the merits. If the Legislature had so intended, it could have been easily so stated. In the absence of such provision, and under the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the statute as it now reads, the orders of the Railroad Commission, when called in controversy by suit, must be subject to the action of the courts in the same manner and subject to the same orders and method of procedure as any other civil suit, except where specifically stated otherwise.
The other matters raised in said motion have already been disposed of in our opinion, and we deem further discussion unnecessary. Appellants’ motion is overruled.
Motion overruled.