Illinois Consol. Tel. Co. v. Illinois Commerce Commission

• Decision Date: 20 August 1981
• Docket Number: No. 16905,16905
• Citation: 54 Ill.Dec. 670,99 Ill.App.3d 462,425 N.E.2d 535
• Parties: , 54 Ill.Dec. 670 ILLINOIS CONSOLIDATED TELEPHONE COMPANY, Plaintiff-Appellee, Cross-Appellant, v. ILLINOIS COMMERCE COMMISSION, Defendant-Appellant, Cross-Appellee.
• Court: United States Appellate Court of Illinois

Page 535

425 N.E.2d 535

99 Ill.App.3d 462, 54 Ill.Dec. 670

ILLINOIS CONSOLIDATED TELEPHONE COMPANY, Plaintiff-Appellee Cross-Appellant, v. ILLINOIS COMMERCE COMMISSION, Defendant-Appellant, Cross-Appellee.

No. 16905.

Appellate Court of Illinois, Fourth District.

Aug. 20, 1981.

Tyrone C. Fahner, Atty. Gen., Hercules F. Bolos, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., Chief Counsel, Allen C. Wesolowski, James E. Weging, Asst. Attys. Gen., Chicago, for defendant-appellant, cross-appellee.

Douglas G. Brown, Gary L. Smith, Douglas G. Brown, P.C., Springfield, Richard F. Record, Jr., Craig & Craig, Mattoon, for plaintiff-appellee, cross-appellant.

LONDRIGAN, Justice:

Aircall Communications, Inc. (Aircall), sought a certificate of public convenience and necessity from the Illinois Commerce Commission (Commission). Aircall proposed to conduct both tone-only and tone-and-voice radio paging operations in the Charleston-Mattoon area of Illinois. Illinois Consolidated Telephone Company (Illinois Consolidated), who was already operating a paging service in this area, was allowed to intervene. The Commission granted Aircall a certificate. Illinois Consolidated's request for a rehearing was denied. Illinois Consolidated then appealed the cause to the circuit court of Coles County. That court reversed and remanded the Commission's order. The Commission now appeals the circuit court's order. Illinois Consolidated cross-appeals.

The main issue here is whether radio paging companies are public utilities under the statutory definition contained in section 10.3 of the Public Utilities Act (Ill.Rev.Stat. 1979, ch. 1112/3, par. 10.3).

The Commission possesses only that jurisdiction conferred upon it by the legislature. (Lambdin v. Commerce Com. (1933), 352 Ill. 104, 185 N.E. 221; Illinois-Indiana Cable Television Association v. Illinois Commerce Com. (1973), 55 Ill.2d 205, 302 N.E.2d 334.) Therefore, if radio paging systems are not within the statutory definition of a public utility, the Commission would have no jurisdiction over those services, and radio paging systems would not be required to obtain certificates of public convenience and necessity from the Commission. It must be noted that the Commission did not argue lack of jurisdiction in any of the proceedings below. It also failed to raise this issue in its notice of appeal. However, lack of subject matter jurisdiction may be raised at any time (Michelson v. Industrial Com. (1941), 375 Ill. 462, 31 N.E.2d 940). Subject matter jurisdiction cannot be conferred upon a court by consent of the parties or by their acquiescence. This issue can be raised even though a party fails to include it in its notice of appeal. Talandis Construction Corp. v. Illinois Building Authority (1978), 60 Ill.App.3d 715, 18 Ill.Dec. 84, 377 N.E.2d 237. The pertinent portions of section 10.3 of the Public Utilities Act are:

" 'Public utility' means and includes every corporation, company, association, joint stock company or association, firm, partnership or individual, their lessees, trustees, or receivers appointed by any court whatsoever that owns, controls, operates or manages, within this State, directly or indirectly, for public use, any plant, equipment or property used or to be used for or in connection with, or owns or controls any franchise, license, permit or right to engage in:

b. the transmission of telegraph or telephone messages between points within this State."

The question here is whether radio paging companies can be said to transmit telephone messages between points within this State. The Commission argues that radio paging companies are merely customers of telephone companies and that services provided by these paging companies are not within the plain and commonly ascribed meaning of telephone service. Aircall proposed to operate a one-way paging system. In this type of system, a two-way conversation is not possible between the client and the person placing the initial call to the paging service. A subscriber to a paging service is given a receiver which is tuned to the frequency of a radio wave transmission. When another person wishes to contact the client, he calls the radio paging company. At this point, a paging service employee or its automatic equipment initiates the transmission of a radio signal which activates the client's receiver. The pocket-size receiver then emits either a short sound followed by a 12-second voice message or the sound alone. After receiving the signal, the client uses a telephone to call the paging service for further information. In the case of a tone-and-voice pager, the client may have enough information to call the paging party. Aircall's service would have been interconnected with the telephone system of the intervenor, Illinois Consolidated. The paging company would not own or operate telephone lines, equipment, or facilities.

Section 10.3 of the Public Utilities Act states that a public utility includes companies which control, operate, or manage any plants, equipment, or property used or to be used for or in connection with the transmission of telegraph or telephone messages. We find that the equipment and property of paging systems are used "in connection with" the transmission of telephone messages and thus a paging service would fall under the statutory jurisdiction of the Commission.

In the past, we have treated paging services as public utilities. In Danville Redipage, Inc. v. Illinois Commerce Com. (1980), 87 Ill.App.3d 787, 43 Ill.Dec. 328, 410 N.E.2d 328, Tel-Illinois, Inc., sought a certificate of public convenience and necessity to conduct an interconnected paging operation in Vermilion County. Redipage already provided noninterconnected manual paging service for the same area. (In a noninterconnected service, after the telephone call from a person wishing to speak to the client is made, a paging service employee must transmit the radio signals to the client's receiver. In an interconnected service, the radio signal is transmitted to the receiver automatically.) The Commission argued that Redipage was not a public utility because it had never received a certificate of public necessity and convenience. We said that an absence of such a certificate does not mean that Redipage was not in fact a utility supplying services and entitled to be considered first-in-the-field. We concluded that Redipage was a public utility. By remanding that cause so that the Commission could make findings relevant to the issue of whether or not Redipage was capable of and could provide the necessary service, we directed the Commission to treat a paging service as a public utility. In the instant case, the trial court based its order reversing and remanding the Commission's decision upon Danville Redipage. The Commission was directed to make specific findings regarding Illinois Consolidated's ability to provide paging services to the public pursuant to its status as "first-in-the-field." We find both the trial court's reversal and remandment and its reliance on Danville Redipage to be proper.

Similarly, the Illinois Supreme Court implied that a paging service was a public utility in Radio Relay Corp. v. Illinois Commerce Com. (1977), 69 Ill.2d 95, 12 Ill.Dec. 724, 370 N.E.2d 528. Illinois Bell possessed certificates of public convenience and necessity for its telephone business. Bell proposed to buy new equipment and facilities and operate a radio paging service. The supreme court concluded that Illinois Bell's authorization from the Commission to transact telephone public utility business included the authority to provide the paging business. The court said:

"Bell is admittedly authorized to transact a public...