Oklahoma Cotton Ginners' Ass'n v. Walker

• Decision Date: 19 June 1934
• Docket Number: 25018.
• Citation: 33 P.2d 766,168 Okla. 459,1934 OK 368
• Parties: OKLAHOMA COTTON GINNERS' ASS'N v. WALKER et al.
• Court: Oklahoma Supreme Court

33 P.2d 766

168 Okla. 459, 1934 OK 368

OKLAHOMA COTTON GINNERS' ASS'N v. WALKER et al.

No. 25018.

Supreme Court of Oklahoma

June 19, 1934

Syllabus by the Court.

Where the Corporation Commission attempts to fix a rate to be charged by cotton ginners for the ginning and wrapping of cotton, to be state-wide in extent, and it appears from the record that such rate is inadequate in certain portions of the state, the same will be vacated and set aside.

Appeal from Corporation Commission.

Proceeding by the Oklahoma Cotton Ginners' Association against Paul A. Walker and others. On appeal from an order of the Corporation Commission fixing rates to be charged by cotton ginners.

Order vacated, and cause remanded, with directions.

RILEY C.J., dissenting.

Rainey Flynn, Green & Anderson, of Oklahoma City, Alger Melton, of Chickasha, and C. E. Dudley, of Antlers, for plaintiff in error.

A Holmes Baldridge, of Oklahoma City, for defendants in error.

ANDREWS Justice.

This is an appeal by the Oklahoma Cotton Ginners' Association from an order of the Corporation Commission fixing rates to be charged by all persons, corporations, or concerns engaged in the ginning of seed cotton as a public business and operating cotton gins within the state of Oklahoma for the ginning season 1933-1934, and effective after September 5, 1933.

The rates prescribed by the order of the Corporation Commission are 20 cents per 100 pounds for picked cotton and 22 1/2 cents per 100 pounds for snapped or bollie cotton.

The order further provided that the charges for supplying bagging and ties for that ginning season should be 90 cents per pattern for sugar bagging, 1 3/4 pound weight, and $1 per pattern for jute bagging, grade A, 2-pound weight.

The several assignments of error complained of are summarized and presented as follows: "That the said order of the Corporation Commission is not supported by the evidence, is contrary thereto, is contrary to the law and the evidence; that the rates prescribed in said order are arbitrary, unjust and unreasonable and deprive the owners and operators of said gins of their property without due process of law in violation of article 2, § 7, of the Constitution of the state of Oklahoma and of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States." The cause was heard and determined principally upon the evidence of witness M. B. Louthan and the data presented by him. Mr. Louthan is the accountant for the Corporation Commission. The data from which his report was based, shown in Exhibit 2, were obtained from reports and figures which were required to be supplied to the commission by the gin owners for the season of 1932-1933. (The only change appearing in Exhibit 2 was the item of adjustment.) For the purposes of this case, counsel for the plaintiffs have agreed and accepted the data as true and correct and the proper data to be considered in determining the validity of the order appealed from.

In its brief the Corporation Commission says that one of the most perplexing problems in the establishing of gin rates is the determination of the proper basis to be used in establishing a rate. The rate fixed was for the state as a unit. In its brief it says:

"* * * Under a rate of 25¢ per 100 lbs. for picked cotton on the east side of the State, the gins in Lattimer County, as shown on Pg. 70 of Case-made, (pg. 41 of Ex. 2) would scarcely more than make operating expenses, whereas the gins located in Muskogee County, another county on the east side, would earn in some instances, as high as 23 per cent. on the investment, on a 25¢ rate, as shown on page 81 of Case-made, (pg. 53 of Ex. 2). Assuming a rate of 20¢ per 100 lbs. for the west side, the gins in Kiowa County would earn an enormous return on the investment, whereas the gins in Alfalfa County would make approximately operating expenses. Under a 25¢ rate for snapped cotton, and 30¢ for bollie cotton, the gins in Kiowa County made an average earning of 31.9 per cent. for the ginning season 1932-1933, as shown on page 48 of Case-made, (pg. 19 of Ex. 2); whereas the gins in Alfalfa County, under the same rate, did not make operating expenses, as shown on page 31 of Case-made, (pg. 2 of Ex. 2). Thus, even though the State be zoned, inequalities would occur within the zones

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