City of Camden v. Public Service Com'n of South Carolina

• Decision Date: 02 October 1984
• Docket Number: No. 22183,22183
• Court: South Carolina Supreme Court
• Parties: The CITY OF CAMDEN, Appellant, v. The PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION OF SOUTH CAROLINA, Barbara Truesdell, et al., and Lynches River Electric Cooperative, Inc., Respondents. . Heard

Page 519

323 S.E.2d 519

283 S.C. 380

The CITY OF CAMDEN, Appellant, v. The PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION OF SOUTH CAROLINA, Barbara Truesdell, et al., and Lynches River Electric Cooperative, Inc., Respondents.

No. 22183.

Supreme Court of South Carolina.

Heard Oct. 2, 1984.

Decided Nov. 13, 1984.

Robinson, McFadden, Moore, Pope, Williams, Taylor & Brailsford by James M. Brailsford, III, Columbia, and John O. Ehrenclou, Camden, for appellant.

H.W.C. Furman, Camden, for respondents Barbara Truesdell, et al.

George W. Gregory, Cheraw, for respondent Lynches River Elec. Co-op., Inc.

Arthur G. Fusco and Sarena K. Dickerson, Columbia, for respondent Public Service Com'n of South Carolina.

HARWELL, Justice:

The City of Camden (City) appeals from a Public Service Commission (PSC) order affirmed by the circuit court. We reverse.

The City owns and operates an electric distribution system both inside and outside the Camden city limits. It has served the community of Westville, located 16 miles north, with electric power since about 1940. Westville residents requested the City to provide them the electricity, and no other entity was then servicing the area.

After 1945, Lynches River Electric Cooperative began to distribute electricity to areas adjacent to Westville. When the PSC assigned the cooperatives to territories in 1972 the service area between the Camden city limits and Westville was not assigned to a cooperative.

On December 29, 1980, residents of the Westville community petitioned the PSC to allow Lynches River to serve them. The petition generally alleged that the Westville residents were not voters of Camden, did not benefit from the City's electric utility revenue, and that they would receive better service at lower rates from Lynches River.

On April 20, 1981 Lynches River applied to the Commission for assignment of Westville pursuant to the Territorial Assignments Act of 1969, S.C.Code Ann. §§ 58-27-610 through 670 (1976). After a hearing, the PSC issued an order requiring the City to sell its electric plant and facilities to Lynches River and assigning the Westville community to the cooperative for electric service. The order was affirmed by the circuit court.

This appeal centers around the City's assertion that the PSC exceeded its statutory authority in assigning Westville to the cooperative and ordering the City to sell its facilities to it. The respondents PSC and Lynches River contend that, since the City never obtained a certificate of public convenience and necessity as allegedly required by § 58-27-1230, and the PSC had not assigned the territory to a supplier, the territory remained subject to PSC assignment. We disagree.

Code § 58-27-1230 states: "No electrical utility, except a municipality within its corporate limits, shall hereafter begin the construction or operation ... of any electrical utility plant ... or of any extension thereof ... without first obtaining from the Commission a certificate that public convenience and necessity require such operation." However, the section further provides an exception which we believe applies here:

... [T]his section shall not be construed to require any such electrical utility to secure a certificate (c) for an extension into territory contiguous to that already occupied by it and not receiving similar service from another electrical utility.

Extending service to an area contiguous to territory occupied by the City and not already receiving service was thus deemed to be in the public convenience even without PSC approval. The record indicates that, until Camden began servicing Westville, the community had no electricity. Furthermore, although Westville was not contiguous to the city limits, it was contiguous to territory...