Court Opinion

ID: 9419596
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 22:50:21.530897+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:22:19.219644
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Douglas,
dissenting.
I think that the claims to the fund in possession of the court below are to be determined by state law. The Federal Power Commission has no authority to determine the rates which petitioner may charge in these Iowa cities. Under the Natural Gas Act that is for Iowa and Iowa alone to determine. Public Utilities Commission v. United Fuel Gas Co., 317 U. S. 456, 467; Federal Power Commission v. Hope Natural Gas Co., 320 U. S. 591, 610. In that respect this case differs markedly from United States v. Morgan, 307 U. S. 183. If there had been no stay order entered and the interstate rate from the Pipeline company to petitioner had been reduced when the Federal Power Commission entered its order, it still would have taken action by the local authorities to reduce the rates in these Iowa cities.
But the federal court which has this fund has considerable discretion in its management. United States v. Morgan, supra. I fail to see how it abused its discretion in handing the fund over to the local officials. It is only fair to assume that a reduction in the interstate rate would have been followed by a reduction in local rates.1 That indeed was the primary objective of the Natural Gas Act. Federal Power Commission v. Hope Natural Gas Co., supra. We are pointed to no provision of local law which raises any substantial question concerning the power of the local authorities to make a readjustment of rates *153through the distribution of funds impounded under a stay order.2 And the claim of petitioner that the local law would prevent a reduction in its rates for the period while the stay order was in effect is far too vague to acquire the dignity of a substantial question.3 He who maintains that position has the distinct burden of overcoming the presumption that as a matter of local law the consumers were entitled to the benefits of this rate reduction. Petitioner fails to carry that burden. The record is void of any credible evidence that a reduction in the interstate rate would not have warranted a reduction in local rates.
Petitioner is adequately protected by the decree entered by the court below. That court did not undertake finally to determine the rights of the parties in the fund. It has turned the fund over to respondents without prejudice to petitioner’s rights in it. Those rights are determinable under Iowa law. That procedure does not preclude petitioner from its day in an Iowa court if its claim to the fund turns out to be less frivolous and more substantial than it appears to be. I think the court below selected the most equitable and just method of rectifying the injury done by its stay order.

 Petitioner asserts, and I assume, that under the Iowa law rates can be made only prospectively. But it appears from Town of Williams v. Iowa Falls Electric Co., 185 Iowa 493, 500, 170 N. W. 815, that the Iowa courts under their “balance of convenience” rule will impound alleged excessive amounts collected by a utility company pending the outcome of rate litigation so as to protect the rights both of the utility and the consumers. If the rate increase is ultimately disallowed, the impounded funds will be returned to the customers; otherwise they will be turned over to the company. We are pointed to no authority which suggests that Iowa would not sanction the use of such a method of readjustment under the circumstances of this case.

 So far as appears the rates which petitioner was charging during the period of the stay order had been voluntarily proposed by it.