Com. ex rel. Office of Atty. Gen. v. Central Tel. Co., 781175

• Citation: 219 Va. 883,252 S.E.2d 586
• Decision Date: 02 March 1979
• Docket Number: No. 781175,781175
• Parties: , 29 P.U.R.4th 499 COMMONWEALTH of Virginia, ex rel., OFFICE OF the ATTORNEY GENERAL v. CENTRAL TELEPHONE COMPANY of Virginia, Southern Telephone Company and the State Corporation Commission. Record
• Court: Supreme Court of Virginia

Page 586

252 S.E.2d 586

219 Va. 883, 29 P.U.R.4th 499

COMMONWEALTH of Virginia, ex rel., OFFICE OF the ATTORNEY GENERAL v. CENTRAL TELEPHONE COMPANY of Virginia, Southern Telephone Company and the State Corporation Commission.

Record No. 781175.

Supreme Court of Virginia.

March 2, 1979.

Donald G. Owens, Asst. Atty. Gen. (Marshall Coleman, Atty. Gen., on brief), for appellant.

Edward L. Flippen, David Meade White, Richmond, Donald W. Glaves, Chicago, Ill. (White & Wood, P. C., Richmond, Ross Hardies, O'Keefe, Babcock & Parsons, Chicago, Ill., on brief), for appellees.

No brief for State Corporation Commission, appellee.

Before I'ANSON, C. J., and CARRICO, HARRISON, COCHRAN, HARMAN, POFF and COMPTON, JJ.

HARRISON, Justice.

This is a companion case to Central Telephone Company of Virginia v. State Corporation Commission of Virginia, Va., 252 S.E.2d 575 (1979), this day decided. All facts necessary for our decision in the instant case are there stated.

The Division of Consumer Counsel, Office of the Attorney General, has appealed from the final order of the State Corporation Commission entered April 18, 1978, involved in the Central case. The Attorney General argues (1) that the Commission erred in not requiring Central Telephone Company of Virginia to refund in its entirety the surcharge it permitted to go into effect in January, 1977, "in that, contrary to the requirements of the Code of Virginia, such surcharge was not subsequently investigated and found just and reasonable"; (2) that the Commission erred in including for rate making purposes certain expenses of Central, the recurrence of which was found to be questionable by the Commission; and (3) that the Commission was not consistent in the manner in which it treated Central and Southern Telephone Company, the two companies involved, with respect to excessive prices allegedly paid to Central Service Company.

Central's application for an interim increase in local service rates recited that, pursuant to Virginia Code § 56-237, Et seq., it was filing a rider to the Company's tariff schedules which "it proposes be made effective November 27, 1976, upon such notice to the public and in such manner as the Commission may require". The Commission refused to allow the surcharge to become effective until after the need for the increase was investigated. Accordingly, it scheduled and conducted a public hearing at which both Central and the Commission's staff presented evidence.

The Commission, on December 22, 1976, found that a substantial need for interim relief had been demonstrated and ordered the increase (surcharge requested by Central), effective January 7, 1977, to remain in effect pending a full investigation, public hearing and decision on an application for permanent rate relief which Central proposed to file. The Commission ordered Central to file on or before December 30, 1976, a revised tariff schedule designed to produce the additional gross revenue needed, and it was duly filed.

Central and Southern, on June 15, 1977, filed their applications for a permanent increase in local service rates to become effective July 15, 1977. This...