Corporation Commission v. Pacific Motor Trucking Co.

• Citation: 100 Ariz. 87,412 P.2d 33
• Decision Date: 10 March 1966
• Docket Number: No. 6313,6313
• Parties: The CORPORATION COMMISSION of the State of Arizona, and Mit Simms, William T. Brooks and John H. Barry, as Members of and comprising the same, Appellants, v. PACIFIC MOTOR TRUCKING COMPANY, a corporation, Arizona Express, Inc., a corporation, and Alabam Freight Lines, a corporation, Appellees.
• Court: Supreme Court of Arizona

Page 33

412 P.2d 33

100 Ariz. 87

The CORPORATION COMMISSION of the State of Arizona, and Mit Simms, William T. Brooks and John H. Barry, as Members of and comprising the same, Appellants, v. PACIFIC MOTOR TRUCKING COMPANY, a corporation, Arizona Express, Inc., a corporation, and Alabam Freight Lines, a corporation, Appellees.

No. 6313.

Supreme Court of Arizona, In Banc.

March 10, 1966.

Rehearing Denied May 10, 1966.

Darrell F. Smith, Atty. Gen., Robt. W. Pickrell, Wade Church, Robert Morrison, former Attys. Gen., Minne & Sorenson, Phoenix, by Richard Minne, Phoenix, of counsel, for appellants.

Thomas F. Tobin, Phoenix, for appellee Alabam Freight Lines.

UDALL, Justice.

The Corporation Commission is here appealing the judgment of the trial court voiding the Commission's award of a certificate of convenience and necessity to Schade Transfer & Storage Company. The two appellees, Pacific Motor Trucking Company and Arizona Express, have voluntarily stipulated to abandon their operating rights in so far as they pertain to the application of Schade Transfer & Storage Company. Alabam Freight Lines is now the sole appellee.

Alabam, Pacific, and Arizona Express had certificates of convenience and necessity to transport certain commodities over certain routes. Schade Transfer & Storage Company applied to the Corporation Commission for a certificate of convenience and necessity in 1948 to transport some of the same commodities over the same routes. Schade offered to install special equipment, mechanically controlled refrigeration units, for perishables. After a hearing before the Commission, on December 27, 1948, the Commission ordered that all of the carriers represented as protestants against the application of Schade, that is, Alabam, Pacific, and Arizona Express, be given 'sixty (60) days to improve their service by acquiring controlled mechanical refrigeration units for use on their respective lines.'

The Opinion and Order of the Corporation Commission dated March 11, 1949 stated:

'On March 1, 1949 the application (of Schade) was dismissed. From the evidence offered the interested carriers have complied with the order of December 27, 1948.'

In June of 1953 Schade again filed a similar application with the Corporation Commission. Alabam, again one of the protestants, appeared and objected to the granting of a certificate to Schade for the territory being served by it. On July 30, 1953, the Corporation Commission issued an order and opinion granting Schade's application. In that opinion and order the Commission said:

'the public convenience and necessity requires a storedoor pickup and inside delivery service for the transportation of the commodities set forth in applicant's application by mechanically controlled refrigerated motor vehicles.'

The opinion also referred to the prior opinion denying Schade's application, as follows:

'* * * the protestants to the application at that hearing, who were also protestants to the application in this hearing, were then directed to improve their service by securing mechanically controlled refrigerated units for the transportation of such commodities; that the evidence further established that the protestants, * * * have not furnished storedoor pickup and delivery by mechanically controlled refrigerated motor vehicles of the commodities described in this application and for such reason it is the considered opinion of the Commission that they have failed in their duty to the public to provide such service after having been afforded ample opportunity so to do.

'* * * that the transportation of such commodities in such a manner is a highly specialized and different service to that offered by the protestants; that the applicant has equipment transportation service and is a fit and adapted and suited for such specialized proper person to be granted a certificate therefor.'

Following this Opinion and Order, Alabam petitioned for rehearing before the Corporation Commission, stating that Alabam Freight Lines had a certificate of convenience and necessity issued by the Corporation Commission, authorizing it to transport the commodities sought to be transported by Schade, and that the Commission had not, prior to its Order and Opinion of July 30, 1953, found the services being rendered by Alabam Freight Lines, in the territory it was certificated to serve, to be unsatisfactory, insufficient or inadequate to meet the needs of the people, business or communities in said territory. The petition claimed that Alabam had complied with all previous orders of the Commission. The petition stated:

'The Commission has not, in this hearing, directed or ordered Alabam Freight Lines to improve or extend the services being presently rendered by it within the state of Arizona, or to institute any new service in any of said Counties, so as to meet any public convenience and necessity...