In re Coal Rates In N.M..

• Decision Date: 16 February 1918
• Docket Number: No. 2135.,2135.
• Citation: 23 N.M. 704,171 P. 506
• Court: New Mexico Supreme Court
• Parties: In re COAL RATES IN NEW MEXICO.

23 N.M. 704

171 P. 506

In re COAL RATES IN NEW MEXICO.

No. 2135.

Supreme Court of New Mexico,

Feb. 16, 1918.

Syllabus by the Court.

The burden of producing evidence, to warrant a proposed order by the state corporation commission, rests upon the commission, where it initiates the proceeding, and the Supreme Court can determine the reasonableness or the lawfulness of an order made by it only upon the evidence adduced before the commission and presented to the court by the record.

Neither by the Constitution nor by statute is the commission given the power to suspend a proposed tariff, and the law does not cast upon a railway company the burden of justifying a rate or proposed tariff.

The state corporation commission cannot cast the burden of justifying a rate upon the carrier, by serving it with an order to show cause why a given rate should not be established.

In the matter of the increase of 15 cents per ton over and above the rates now in force for the transportation of coal between points in New Mexico by railroad companies operating therein. Proceeding removed to Supreme Court by state corporation commission to secure enforcement of order. Order of commission declared unenforceable.

Supreme Court can determine reasonableness or lawfulness of an order of state corporation commission only upon evidence adduced before the commission and presented to court by the record.

Harry L. Patton, Atty. Gen. (H. S. Clancy, of Santa Fé, of counsel), for Corporation Commission.

H. C. Reid, C. M. Botts, and George S. Downer, all of albuquerque, for Atchison, T. & S. F. Ry. Co. and others.Hawking & Franklin, of El Paso, Tex., for El Paso Southwestern R. Co. and Arizona & N. M. Ry. Co.

ROBERTS, J.

This proceeding was removed to this court by the state corporation commission pursuant to section 7 of article 11 of the state Constitution, for the purpose of securing the enforcement of an order made by the commission relative to rates for the transportation of coal. The transcript of the proceedings before the state corporation commission shows the following:

First. That on the 8th day of August, 1917, the commission, reciting therein that the defendants, having filed tariffs with the commission showing an increase of 15 cents per ton over and above the rates then in force for the transportation of coal between points in New Mexico, the same to become effective on August 20, 1917, ordered the defendants to show cause before the commission on the 18th day of August, 1917, why the rates then in force for transportation of coal by the defendants between points in the state should not be and continue in effect until otherwise fixed and determined by the said commission.

Second. That the defendants appeared on the date named, when the commission, without any evidence being introduced before it showing, or tending to show, that the proposed increase of the defendants' rates would be excessive, unjust, or unduly compensatory, or that the existing rates were just or fairly compensatory; but, on the contrary, through the chairman of its body announcing substantially that it had already reached a conclusion in the matter, without stating, however, what such conclusion by testimony or other evidence, if they could, stating, among other things “We would not be readily disposed to reconsider the matter.”

Third. That the defendants, protesting, among other things, that the commission had no right to enter such an order until the same was properly sustained by evidence before it, with the opportunity on the part of the defendants to rebut the same, declined to introduce any evidence or make such showing until the commission had placed them in that position, and thereupon the commission closed the hearing; but, thereafter, and on the same day, without making any findings upon which to base the same, issued the...