Betts v. Roberts

• Court: Arizona Supreme Court
• Writing for the Court: Stanford, C. J.
• Citation: Betts v. Roberts, 63 Ariz. 337, 162 P.2d 423 (Ariz. 1945)
• Decision Date: 08 October 1945
• Docket Number: Civil 4751
• Parties: AMOS A. BETTS, WILSON T. WRIGHT and WILLIAM PETERSEN, as Members of and Constituting the ARIZONA CORPORATION COMMISSION, Appellants, v. JEROME BERNARD ROBERTS, Doing Business as PARKER TRANSFER, Appellee

162 P.2d 423

63 Ariz. 337

AMOS A. BETTS, WILSON T. WRIGHT and WILLIAM PETERSEN, as Members of and Constituting the ARIZONA CORPORATION COMMISSION, Appellants, v. JEROME BERNARD ROBERTS, Doing Business as PARKER TRANSFER, Appellee

Civil No. 4751

Supreme Court of Arizona

October 8, 1945

APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of the County of Maricopa. Dudley W. Windes, Judge.

Judgment affirmed.

Mr. Joe Conway, Attorney General, Mr. Thomas J. Croaff, Assistant Attorney General, and Mr. Phil Jacobson of Counsel, for Appellants.

Messrs Jennings, Salmon & Trask, for Appellee.

Stanford C. J. LaPrade and Morgan, JJ., concur.

OPINION

Stanford C. J.

On May 29, 1942, appellants received from the Western Truck Lines, Ltd., a corporation, its application for an order of the Arizona Corporation Commission for a certificate of public convenience and necessity authorizing the transportation of freight and express between Parker, Arizona, and Ehrenberg, Arizona, passing through and serving all intermediate points, including the Japanese Relocation Center of Poston. For a long time prior thereto the Western Truck Lines, Ltd., was the holder of certificates of convenience and necessity issued by the Arizona Corporation Commission for transportation as a common carrier of property, freight and express between Phoenix and Ehrenberg, Arizona, and between Phoenix and Parker, Arizona.

The application of the Western Truck Lines, Ltd., was protested by the appellee herein. In July, 1942, the certificate as prayed for by said Western Truck Lines, Ltd., was granted.

Some eighteen miles south of Parker, Arizona, there had been established, before the application of the Western Truck Lines, Ltd., a certain relocation camp for Japanese persons, the place being known as "Poston." Prior to the time of the Western Truck Lines, Ltd., being issued its certificate of convenience and necessity, the appellee herein had served the town of Parker and vicinity for twenty-five miles thereabouts, including the town of Poston, by reason of a certificate of convenience and necessity issued to him by the appellants.

In addition to intrastate commerce by the Western Truck Lines, Ltd., it also conducted a business through parts of the State of Arizona by authority of the Interstate Commerce Commission, operating between points in the State of California and points in the State of Arizona.

In August, 1942, appellee filed his complaint in the superior court of Maricopa County, Arizona, complaining, mainly, that the Arizona Corporation Commission had not, before the issuance of its certificate to the Western Truck Lines, Ltd., to operate, determined by its order, or otherwise required appellee to extend or improve the services rendered by him in such manner as to meet any public convenience and necessity found and determined by said Arizona Corporation Commission to exist, or to provide such services as said commission might deem necessary. The complaint of appellee asked that said superior court make and enter an order adjudging said order of the commission void and illegal and that the certificate of convenience and necessity issued was contrary to law.

From a judgment of the superior court granting the relief prayed for by plaintiff therein, this appeal is taken.

One of the principal contentions of the appellant is:

"It was not possible, practicable or convenient, to haul this large amount of freight by motor carriers from Phoenix, a large part under refrigeration, and to dump the same on the local transfer service at Parker, operated by appellee; and to have the same merchandise reloaded, recooled by other refrigeration service (none being available at Parker) and hauled by transfer or vicinity service to the camps at Poston."

It is further contended by the appellant:

". . . that the plaintiff-appellee in this action could not render the necessary service, having no rights to operate between Phoenix and other points and places within the 25 miles of Parker, Arizona, to which his certificate is limited. He contends that...