Duke Power Co. v. LAURENS ELEC. CO-OP.

• Citation: 344 S.C. 101,543 S.E.2d 560
• Decision Date: 18 December 2000
• Docket Number: No. 3273.,3273.
• Parties: DUKE POWER COMPANY, Appellant, v. LAURENS ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE, INC., The City of Fountain Inn and Marty Seppala, Defendants. Of whom Laurens Electric Cooperative, Inc., is, Respondent.
• Court: Court of Appeals of South Carolina

344 S.C. 101
543 S.E.2d 560

DUKE POWER COMPANY, Appellant,
v.
LAURENS ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE, INC., The City of Fountain Inn and Marty Seppala, Defendants.
Of whom Laurens Electric Cooperative, Inc., is, Respondent

No. 3273.

Court of Appeals of South Carolina.

Heard November 6, 2000

Filed December 18, 2000.

Substituted and Refiled March 7, 2001.

344 S.C. 102

James W. Logan, Jr., of Logan, Jolly & Smith, of Anderson, for appellant

Wilburn Brewer, Jr., and Richard S. Dukes, Jr., both of Nexsen, Pruet, Jacobs & Pollard, of Columbia; and James E. Bryan, Jr., of Laurens, for respondent.

344 S.C. 103

ORDER DENYING PETITION FOR REHEARING

PER CURIAM:

After careful consideration of the Petition for Rehearing, the Court is unable to discover any material fact or principle of law that has been either overlooked or disregarded and, hence, there is no basis for granting a rehearing. It is, therefore, ordered that the Petition for Rehearing be denied and the attached opinion substituted for the opinion filed on December 18, 2000.

HEARN, Chief Justice:

Duke Power Company (Duke) appeals the grant of summary judgment to Laurens Electric Cooperative, Inc. (Laurens) in Duke's action to enjoin Laurens from serving customers in a newly annexed area of the city of Fountain Inn. Duke argues Laurens lacks the authority under the Rural Electric Cooperative Act¹ (Act) to serve these customers. We reverse and remand.

FACTS/PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Duke brought this action to enjoin Laurens, a rural electric cooperative (co-op), from providing power to a newly annexed area of Fountain Inn known as Country Gardens. Duke, Laurens, and Fountain Inn stipulated to the following facts: Fountain Inn is not a rural area under the Act because its population exceeds 2,500 people; Duke is the principal supplier of electricity to Fountain Inn in terms of both revenue and number of customers; neither Laurens nor Duke served any customers in Country Gardens at the time of annexation; and Fountain Inn adopted an ordinance following annexation granting Laurens an exclusive assignment to serve Country Gardens, part of which was previously assigned to Duke by the South Carolina Public Service Commission.²

344 S.C. 104

Both Laurens and Duke moved for summary judgment. The trial court granted summary judgment to Laurens from which Duke appeals

STANDARD OF REVIEW

"When an appeal involves stipulated or undisputed facts, an appellate court is free to review whether the trial court properly applied the law to those facts." WDW Prop. v. City of Sumter, 342 S.C. 6, 8, 535 S.E.2d 631, 632 (2000). In such cases, the appellate court is not required to defer to the trial court's legal conclusions. J.K. Const., Inc. v. W. Carolina Reg'l Sewer Auth., 336 S.C. 162, 166, 519 S.E.2d 561, 563 (1999).

DISCUSSION

Duke argues the circuit court erred in finding Laurens could lawfully initiate service in a nonrural area absent an applicable exception under section 33-49-250. We agree.

Rural electric cooperatives are creatures of statute and only have such authority as the legislature has given them. See South Carolina Elec. & Gas Co. v. Pub. Serv. Comm'n, 275 S.C. 487, 489, 272 S.E.2d 793, 794 (1980) (recognizing that regulatory bodies as creatures of statute hold only those powers expressly granted by the legislature). The cardinal rule of statutory interpretation is to ascertain and effectuate the intention of the legislature. Hodges v. Rainey, 341 S.C. 79, 85, 533 S.E.2d 578, 581 (2000) (citing Ray Bell Constr. Co. v. Sch. Dist. of Greenville County, 331 S.C. 19, 501 S.E.2d 725 (1998)). If a statute's terms are clear and unambiguous on their face, there is no room for statutory construction and courts must apply the statute according to its literal meaning. Carolina Power & Light Co. v. City of Bennettsville, 314 S.C. 137, 139, 442 S.E.2d 177, 179 (1994).

Laurens was created pursuant to the Act's provision...