Cajun Elec. Power Co-op., Inc. v. Louisiana Public Service Com'n
| Decision Date | 03 May 1989 |
| Docket Number | No. 88-CA-1719,88-CA-1719 |
| Citation | 544 So.2d 362 |
| Parties | CAJUN ELECTRIC POWER COOPERATIVE, INC., et al. v. LOUISIANA PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION. 544 So.2d 362 |
| Court | Louisiana Supreme Court |
John Schwab, Schwab & Walter, Baton Rouge, James J. Thornton, Johnston & Thornton, Shreveport, W.M. Shaw, Shaw & Shaw, Homer, Rudolph McIntyre, Winnsboro, James B. Supple, Darnall, Biggs, Trowbridge, Supple & Cremaldi, Franklin, James J. Davidson, III, Davidson, Meaux, Sonnier & McElligott, Lafayette, Wendell Miller, Millican, Miller & Buisson, Jennings, James Funderburk, and Duval, Funderburk, Sundbery & Lovell, Houma, for plaintiffs-appellants.
Marshall Brinkley, Robert L. Rieger, Jr., Baton Rouge, Michael R. Fontham, Paul L. Zimmering, Noel J. Darce, and Stone, Pigman, Walther, Wittmann & Hutchinson, New Orleans, for defendant-appellee.
ON REHEARING
Rehearing was granted to reconsider whether article IV, Sec. 21(B) of the state constitution, by explicitly granting to the commission the full authority over "all public utilities," removes the ability of the legislature to alter the commission's jurisdiction over any business defined as a public utility at the time the 1974 Constitution was adopted. We conclude that it does. Insofar as R.S. 45:1163 is inconsistent with this plenary authority, it is unconstitutional.
Article IV, Sec. 21(B) provides that the public service commission "shall regulate all common carriers and public utilities and have such other regulatory authority as provided by law." (Emphasis added). Our code provides that "[w]hen a law is clear and unambiguous and its application does not lead to absurd consequences, the law shall be applied as written and no further interpretation may be made in search of the intent of the legislature." C.C. 9 (previously article 13 (1870)). The code further provides that "[t]he words of a law must be given their generally prevailing meaning." Id. article 11 (previously articles 14 and 15 (1870)). This court, when interpreting our constitution, should give effect to language that is plain and unambiguous. Bank of New Orleans and Trust Co. v. Seavey, 383 So.2d 354 (La.1980), on remand, 399 So.2d 642 (La.App. 4th Cir.1981), writ denied, 401 So.2d 1196 (La.1981). Explicit constitutional provisions are not subject to judicial construction and should be applied by giving words their generally understood meaning. State through Department of Highways v. Bradford, 242 La. 1095, 141 So.2d 378 (1962).
The cooperatives contend again, as they did in their original brief, that the words of article IV, Sec. 21(B) are ambiguous. "When the language of the law is susceptible of different meanings, it must be interpreted as having the meaning that best conforms to the purpose of the law." C.C. 10. If the words of a constitution are indeed ambiguous, a court may resort to the transcripts of the constitutional convention proceedings as an aid to find the purpose, intent, and meaning of those words. New Orleans Firefighters Association v. Civil Service Commission of City of New Orleans, 422 So.2d 402 (La.1982).
The majority in our original opinion, 532 So.2d 1372, did not address whether article IV, Sec. 21(B) is ambiguous, agreeing instead with the cooperatives' contention that the drafters did not intend to change the jurisdiction of the commission in the new constitution. Article IV, Sec. 21(B), however, is unambiguous. It clearly states that the commission shall have jurisdiction over all common carriers and public utilities and have such other regulatory authority as provided by law. The cooperatives' contention that the phrase "as provided by law" modifies the commission's jurisdiction over common carriers and public utilities would result in a solecism. The adverbial phrase, "as provided by law," defines the conditions under which the commission shall have the "other regulatory authority" that the legislature may choose to grant. 1
Since the provision is unambiguous, this court ought not base its decision on words used in argument at the convention proceedings but should instead rely on the product that the convention ultimately produced. City of New Orleans v. Scramuzza, 507 So.2d 215 (La.1987). The language that the voters of this state adopted granted, in mandatory language, constitutional jurisdiction to the commission over all common carriers and public utilities. 2 The legislature cannot by statute modify that jurisdiction. City of Baton Rouge v. Short, 345 So.2d 37 (La.1977).
If electric cooperatives are public utilities, then the commission has regulatory jurisdiction over them. In 1970, the legislature amended R.S. 45:121 to include electric cooperatives on the list of businesses classified as public utilities. 1970 La. Acts No. 34, Sec. 1. Thus, at the time the 1974 constitution was drafted and adopted, electric cooperatives were statutorily defined as public utilities and were under the jurisdiction of the commission. See R.S. 12:426; Dixie Electric Membership Cooperative v. Louisiana Public Service Commission, 509 So.2d 1002 (La.1987). Electric cooperatives remain statutorily defined as public utilities. R.S. 45:121. 3
Even though they are statutorily defined as being public utilities, the cooperatives contend that they are not the kind of public utility for which regulation by the commission was intended. Indeed, the constitution does restrict the commission's regulatory jurisdiction over one type of public utility, that being a utility owned, operated, or regulated by a political subdivision's governing body. La.Const. Art. IV, Sec. 21(C). But neither the plain language of this constitution nor the record of the framers' debates indicates that the commission's jurisdiction over electric cooperatives should be curtailed. As noted above, the legislature defined cooperatives as public utilities at the time of the drafting and the adoption of the 1974 Constitution. Had the framers intended to except another kind of public utility from the commission's jurisdiction, they could have done so. 4 In addition, the cooperatives' argument that they are not the kind of utilities intended to be subject to regulation is undercut by the very statute they seek to have upheld as constitutional. R.S. 45:1163(B) allows electric cooperatives to choose to have rates and services regulated by the commission under the provisions of R.S. 12:426. If the structure and function of these cooperatives were such that regulation were unnecessary, it would be illogical for the legislature to have exempted them from regulation in R.S. 45:1163(A) and yet provided for them to choose to be regulated in R.S. 45:1163(B) and R.S. 12:426.
In 1935, President Roosevelt established the Rural Electrification Administration (REA) 5 in order to provide government loans at low interest rates to encourage electric service development in rural areas. As the Supreme Court has noted, the REA is a "lending agency rather than a classic public utility regulatory body...." Arkansas Electric Cooperative Corporation, 461 U.S. at 386, 103 S.Ct. at 1913. As such, it performs its role within state regulatory schemes. Id. Accordingly, state rate regulation of REA-financed cooperatives is not preempted by the Rural Electrification Act. Id. at 385, 103 S.Ct. at 1913.
Although the author of this opinion would decide the attorneys fees issue in favor of the commission, 6 the majority has determined otherwise. The other justices of the court, three of whom subscribe fully to this opinion, and three of whom dissent on the jurisdictional issue but concur in the denial of the commission's claim for attorneys fees, conclude that the fee award should be denied for the following reasons.
The issue was decided in South Central Bell Telephone Co. v. La. Public Service Comm'n, 412 So.2d 1069 (La.1982), wherein it was determined that La.R.S. 45:1180 and 1181 did not authorize the commission to be reimbursed for attorney fees except in cases involving rate-making disputes. While La.R.S. 45:1180 and 1181 were amended by Act 561 of 1985, that amendment did not have the effect of broadening the types of cases in which the commission is entitled to attorney fee reimbursement. Instead, by amending R.S. 45:1180 and 1181, and enacting R.S. 45:1163.3, the Legislature created an economics and rate analysis division, and provided that in certain circumstances the commission could be reimbursed by parties examined by the economics and rate analysis division in rate-making matters. This case, a declaratory judgment action brought by the cooperatives, involves a jurisdictional dispute, not a rate-making examination by the economics and rate analysis division, so there is no statutory authority for an award of attorney's fees to the commission under these circumstances.
Therefore, the request of the commission to have the cooperatives cast for the fees that the commission incurred in defending this declaratory judgment action is denied.
Accordingly, the opinion of this court on original hearing is vacated, and the opinion of the district court concerning the jurisdiction of the commission is affirmed. The opinion of the district court awarding attorneys fees to the commission is reversed, and each party will bear its own costs.
LEMMON, J., subscribed to the opinion the concurring reasons of CALOGERO, J.
WATSON, J., dissented and assigned reasons.
WATSON, Justice, respectfully dissents, adhering to the views expressed in the original opinion...
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