Ben Avon Boro. v. Ohio Valley Water Co.

Citations

• 260 Pa. 289
• 103 A. 744
• 1918 Pa. LEXIS 508

Syllabus

<p>Public Service Commission — Administrative functions — Discretion — When orders are final — Jurisdiction of courts to review— Reasonableness of orders — Prima facie evidence — Burden of proof —Acts of July 26, 1918, P. L. 187If, and June 8,1916, P. L. 779.</p> <p>1. On an appeal from an order of the Public Service Commission fixing a schedule of rates to he charged by a public service company under the Act of July 26, 1913, P. L. 1374, the inquiry by the court is not whether the order is such as the court would have made in the exercise of administrative functions, hut whether it was a reasonable exercise of the discretion conferred upon the commission by the statute; in other words, the court is not to substitute its judgment as to rates or values for that of the commission.</p> <p>2. It is not intended that the courts shall interfere with the commission to review its determinations further than is necessary to keep them within the law, and protect the constitutional rights of the corporations over which it is given control.</p> <p>3. The settled rule seems to be, that the orders of the commission are to be accepted as final unless (1) beyond the power which it could constitutionally exercise; or (2) beyond its statutory power; or (3) based on a mistake of law; and, where questions of fact are involved, an order, regular on its face may be set aside if it appears that (4) the rate is so low as to be confiscatory and in violation of the constitutional prohibition against taking property without due process of law; or (5) if the commission acted so arbitrarily and unjustly as to fix rates contrary to evidence or without evidence to support it; or (6) if the authority therein involved has been exercised in such an unreasonable manner as to cause it to be within the elementary rule that the substance and not the shadow determines Ae validity of the exercise of the power. The wisdom or expediency of the order is not involved.</p> <p>4. As the statute, in section 23,