Franke v. Johnstown Fuel Supply Co.

Citations

• 70 Pa. Super. 446
• 1918 Pa. Super. LEXIS 275

Syllabus

<p>Public Service Commission — Jurisdiction — Natural gas companies — Appeals•—■Appeal before termination of proceedings — Party affected.</p> <p>Where a natural gas company files a new tariff increasing its rates in a city, and a protest is filed against such increase, and a hearing is had where it is developed that it received its gas under a special contract, from another natural gas company, and the commission makes an order directing the second company to file its tariff and schedule of rates covering its service in supplying natural gas to the first company, the second company is entitled to appeal from such order under the terms of the Public Service Commission Act without waiting until the whole litigation is completed.</p> <p>The Public Service Commission is not a court of law. It has quasi judicial functions, but they are administrative in character, and its jurisdiction must be found in tbe statute which brought it into existence, and its amendments. The right of appeal is therefore necessarily statutory, and the conditions under which this right may be exercised are to be found in the provision for such appeals.</p> <p>As the act provided that any order of the commission might be appealed from “within thirty days after it is filed, by any person affected thereby,” the purpose of the act was to give to any party involved in the proceedings a right of appeal without regard to the determination of the ease as to other parties.</p> <p>Public Service Commission — Natural gas companies — Public service company — Supply to one customer — Interstate commerce.</p> <p>Where a natural gas company organized under the laws of Pennsylvania and having the right of eminent domain supplies gas, under a special contract, to another natural gas company, which in turn serves a city, and the first company has no other customer within the city, such company is a public service company, and subject to the provisions of the Public Service Company Law with respect to the sale of