In re Milo Water Co.

• Decision Date: 24 February 1930
• Citation: 149 A. 299
• Parties: In re MILO WATER CO.
• Court: Maine Supreme Court

149 A. 299

In re MILO WATER CO.

Supreme Judicial Court of Maine.

Feb. 24, 1930.

Exceptions from Public Utilities Commission.

Public Utilities Commission, acting under Priv. & Sp. Laws 1929, c. 84, ordered the Milo Water Company to file with the commission a schedule showing the rates, tolls, and charges, which the company had established in connection with its sewer system or to appear and show cause why it should not comply therewith. After hearing on the order to show cause, the commission entered a decree ordering the Milo Water Company to file a schedule, to which the company excepted. Certified to the Chief Justice from the Public Utilities Commission, under provisions of Rev. St c. 55, § 55.

Exceptions sustained.

Argued before PATTANGALL, C. J., and DUNN, STURGIS, BARNES and FARRINGTON, JJ.

McLean, Fogg & Southard, of Augusta, for Milo Water Co.

Laughlin & Gurney, of Portland, for Town of Milo.

PATTANGALL, C. J.

On exceptions. Certified to the Chief Justice from Public Utilities Commission under the provisions of section 55, c. 55, R. S. 1916.

The Milo Water Company is a corporation organized under chapter 173 of the Private and Special Laws of 1905. Its purposes as set forth in section 2 of said Chapter are as follows: "The purposes of said corporation shall be to supply water for public and private use and for any and all purposes in the town of Milo, in Piscataquis county, and to construct, maintain and operate a system of sewers and drainage in and for said town."

Under the authority conferred by the foregoing act the Milo Water Company constructed, owns, and operates a plant supplying water for public and private use in the town of Milo. It also constructed, and maintains and operates, a sewer system in said town, the receipts and expenditures of which are accounted for in its annual return to the Public Utilities Commission under the heading "Revenues and Expenses of Other Operations."

The foregoing act was amended by chapter 84 of the Private and Special Laws of 1929, adding thereto the following provision: "Such sewer system is hereby declared to be a public utility and as such subject to all the provisions of chapter fifty-five, revised statutes of nineteen hundred and sixteen and acts amendatory thereof and additional thereto."

Acting under this provision, the Public Utilities Commission on September 21, 1929, ordered said Milo Water Company "to file with the Public Utilities Commission on or before October 8, 1929, schedules showing all rates, tolls and charges which it has established in connection with said sewage system in accordance with the provisions of said Section 25 of Chapter 55 of the Revised Statutes, or to appear before the Public Utilities Commission at its offices, State House, Augusta, on the 8th day of October, 1929, at 10:00 o'clock in the forenoon, then and there to show cause, if any it has, why it should not comply with the provisions of said Section 25 and file with the Commission schedules as required thereby."

Schedules were not filed by the Milo Water Company and a hearing on the show cause order was held as provided therein.

Sewage companies as a class are not under the jurisdiction of the Public Utilities Commission, and the Milo Water Company's sewage system is the only system which the Legislature has declared to be a public utility.

At the hearing, the Milo Water Company contended that it should not be required to file schedules for its rates, tolls, and charges in connection with its sewage system, because it is not a public utility so far as its sewer system is concerned, and because the above-quoted legislative act, declaring the sewer system of the company to be a public utility and subject to the provisions of the public utilities law, is unconstitutional and does not give to the water company the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Constitution, but on the contrary singles out that company for discriminatory legislation, imposing upon it a burden that sewer companies as a class are not obliged to assume; that being unconstitutional, and therefore void, the act imposes no obligation upon the water company to comply with its terms.

After hearing on the show cause order and as part of order and decree made in connection therewith dated November 19, 1929, the commission made the following finding: "We are convinced that regardless of our views upon the constitutional question involved, we must find that the Sewer System of the Milo Water Company is a public utility, made such by virtue of Chapter 84 of the Private and Special Laws of 1929, which act we shall presume to be constitutional in accordance with the tenor of this decision; that such sewer system is subject to all the provisions of Chapter 55 of the Revised Statutes of 1916 and acts amendatory thereof and additional thereto; that said Milo Water Company should file with this Commission schedules of all its rates, tolls and charges in connection with said sewer system in accordance with the order of this Commission dated September 21, 1929 and should be required to file such schedules within ten days from the date hereof." And pursuant to this finding, the commission made the following order and decree: "Ordered, adjudged and decreed that the Milo Water Company file schedules showing all rates, tolls and charges which it has established in connection with its sewer system, which it maintains and operates in said town of Milo, within ten days from the date hereof, and that said schedules be filed in accordance with the provisions of section 25 of Chapter 55 of the Revised Statutes of Maine." To which order and decree exceptions were seasonably taken.

The water company relies upon the proposition that the Public Utilities Commission was without jurisdiction prior to 1929, and that the act of 1929, under which the Legislature attempted to give it jurisdiction, is unconstitutional because discriminatory.

The inhabitants of the town of Milo, appearing in opposition to the water company, directly challenge both propositions, contending that the Public Utilities Commission had and has jurisdiction, irrespective of the act of 1929, and that the act is constitutional. Thus the issues presented here are clearly drawn.

The jurisdiction of the commission is expressly limited by the terms of the act creating it to the utilities enumerated therein.

"The term 'public utility' when used in this chapter, includes every common carrier, gas company, electrical company, telephone company, telegraph company, water company, wharfinger and warehouseman, as those terms are defined in this section, and each thereof is hereby declared to be a public utility and to be subject to the jurisdiction, control and regulation of the commission, and to the provisions of this chapter." Rev. St. c. 55, § 15.

Sewage companies are not included. It is contended here, however, that when a water company conducts a sewage business, that branch of its...