Illinois Power & Light Corp. v. Commerce Comm'n

• Decision Date: 09 April 1926
• Docket Number: No. 17071.,17071.
• Citation: 151 N.E. 236,320 Ill. 427
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court
• Parties: ILLINOIS POWER & LIGHT CORPORATION v. COMMERCE COMMISSION et al.

320 Ill. 427

151 N.E. 236

ILLINOIS POWER & LIGHT CORPORATION

v.COMMERCE COMMISSION et al.

No. 17071.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Feb. 18, 1926.

Rehearing Denied April 9, 1926.

Application by the Consol Power Company for certificate of convenience and necessity. From a judgment of the circuit court, affirming an order of the Commerce Commission granting the certificate, the Illinois Power & Light Corporation appeals.

Judgment reversed, and order of Commission set aside.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Macoupin County; Frank W. Burton, judge.

Lane, Dryer & Brown, of Hillsboro (H. L. Hanley, of Chicago, of counsel), for appellant.

A. H. Bell, of Carlinville, and Whitnel & Browning, of East St. Louis, for appellee.

THOMPSON, J.

This appeal is from a judgment of the circuit court of Macoupin county, confirming an order of the Commerce Commission granting to appellee a certificate of convenience and necessity.

Appellant, the Illinois Power & Light Corporation, owns and operates power plants located at Edwardsville, Collinsville, Hillsboro, Gillespie, Carlinville, and elsewhere in this state, with transmission lines and distribution systems used in connection with them. In order to render service to the Mt. Olive-Staunton Coal Company, it made application to extend its transmission line from Sawyerville, in Macoupin county, south and east to mine No. 2, near Williamson, in Madison county. A hearing was had upon the application, and a certificate of convenience and necessity was granted, authorizing appellant to construct a 33,000-volt transmission line along the route indicated in the petition, and giving it the right to sell electric service for light and power purposes to all persons residing within a half mile of the line when constructed. The line has been constructed, and the service is being rendered.

Prior to the granting of this certificate to appellant, the Consolidated Coal Company, which owns a large acreage of coal lands in Macoupin, Madison, Christian, and Bond counties, and which owned and operated three coal mines north of Staunton, in Macoupin county, had erected a power plant at its mine in the village of White City for the purpose of generating electric current for use in its mines, and had erected a transmission line which runs south and west from White City to its mine just outside the city limits of Staunton. This plant is capable of producing much more electricity than is required to operate the three mines of the Consolidated Coal Company, and until it develops some more of its coal lands it can supply electric power to other consumers. The village of White City owns its own distribution system and buys power from the coal company. In addition to selling power to the village, the company is rendering service to 23 consumers who live just outside the corporate limits of the city of Staunton, and is furnishing power to 5 or 6 employees living in company houses along the transmission line.

A quo warranto proceeding was filed challenging the right of the coal company to engage in the business of rendering electric service to private consumers, and thereupon appellee, the Consol Power Company, was organized. On the day its charter was issued, June 28, 1923, appellee filed its application with the Commerce Commission for a certificate of convenience and necessity. January 23, 1924, a certificate was granted, authorizing appellee ‘to engage in the business of rendering electric service along the route of the present electric line of the Consolidated Coal Company, * * * except in so far as the right to render service in such territory was granted to the Illinois Power & Light Corporation under a...