Loden v. Mississippi Public Service Commission

• Citation: 279 So.2d 636
• Decision Date: 25 June 1973
• Docket Number: No. 47512,47512
• Parties: Edward M. LODEN et al. v. MISSISSIPPI PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION and Mantachie Natural Gas District.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Mississippi

Page 636

279 So.2d 636

Edward M. LODEN et al. v. MISSISSIPPI PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION and Mantachie Natural Gas District.

No. 47512.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

June 25, 1973.

Watkins & Eager, Velia Ann Mayer, H. H. Whitworth, Jackson, for appellants.

Thomas, Price, Alston, Jones & Davis, Bennett E. Smith, Jackson, for appellees.

BROOM, Justice:

Edward M. Loden, et al., appellants, appeal from a decree of the Chancery Court of the First Judicial District of Hinds County, Mississippi. Said decree affirmed an order of Mississippi Public Service Commission (identified herein as the Commission) dated March 6, 1972. The order in question authorized Mantachie Natural Gas District (identified herein as Mantachie) to revise its tariff so as to increase gas rates charged its prospective customers in order that Mantachie would be able to finance, construct and operate a natural gas system to serve prospective customers in its certificated area.

Mantachie was created by the State Legislature by passage of Mississippi General Laws Chapter 309 (1966). Said legislation made Mantachie a valid political subdivision of the state pursuant to Section 2 of said Chapter 309, supra. Section 3 thereof contains language indicating that the Legislature found and declared that to provide natural gas service to the residents of the designated areas, and to provide ways and means to accomplish said purpose was the object of the Legislature in creating Mantachie. Mantachie was granted, by section 5 of said act, power and authority to construct and acquire a natural gas transmission and distribution system, and to issue revenue bonds to finance construction of the same. Section 5 supra, granted to Mantachie:

All powers authorized by Chapter 494, Laws of Mississippi, 1950, as amended, except as otherwise provided in this act, to be exercised by municipalities of the State of Mississippi with respect to the construction and installation of natural gas transmission and distribution systems and the financing thereof . . ..

In January 1967 Mantachie petitioned the Commission for a certificate of convenience and necessity authorizing and permitting it to serve natural gas in the crtificated area. The required notice was given but the appellants herein did not protest the application. After the appropriate hearing, the Commission on September 12, 1967 entered its order in usual form granting Mantachie the certificate sought by Mantachie. By proper order the Commission made jurisdiction and fact findings, and found that Mantachie was a political subdivision of the state.

On December 31, 1971 Mantachie applied for an adjustment and increase in its tariff schedule. Appellants' first protest or objection came on January 28, 1972 when they filed their protest and motion to intervene objecting to Mantachie's application. Mantchie's application for increase in rates was heard by the Commission on February 24, 1972. Expert testimony was introduced by Mantachie to the effect that the proposed increase in monthly rates will be reasonable in view of increases in wholesale gas rates and other cost increases related to inflationary pressures occurring since 1967. These economic factors included increases in costs of labor and material and also included increased cost in municipal financing. Two engineers gave expert testimony to the effect that the proposed project was feasible and that it could be financed and operated in competition with other natural gas systems. Testimony before the Commission revealed that the people of the area in question has no other source of natural gas and that should natural gas become available there, the people would be greatly benefited. Testimony also indicated that making natural gas available to the area would be attractive to industrial prospects.

Appellants made no offer of testimony at the hearing of the application for rate increases. At their request the case was continued and set down for special hearing on March 6, 1972, on which date appellants filed another motion for continuance which was overruled by the Commission. The matter was concluded on March 6, 1972, at which time appellants presented no witnesses and none of them offered to testify. An order was entered by the Commission authorizing the revised tariff, which order found that it had full jurisdiction, and that because 'of the increases in gas, installation, maintenance and operating costs, it is necessary' that the increases requested be approved in order that the district may finance, construct and render gas service within the area.

Appellants appealed the cause to the Chancery Court of the First Judicial District of Hinds County, Mississippi. Said court affirmed the order of the Commission and thus this appeal.

I.

Appellants assert that the act by which the Legislature created the Mantachie Natural Gas District is a local and private, or special law and is not a general law, and is, therefore, void because it violated Mississippi Constitution Article 4, section 90(r) (1890); moreover, that the grant of the original certificate of public convenience is void because the act creating the district is unconstitutional.

The precise question here is whether or not the act is void under Mississippi Constitution Article 4, section 90(r) (1890) which prohibits the granting of the right of eminent domain by 'local, private or special laws' and which section provides that eminent domain rights may be granted only by 'general laws.'

Mantachie has a perimeter which extends into only parts of the counties of Itawamba and Lee. The rule is that a statute which applies only to a single county is not necessarily to be legally branded as a special or local law and thus unconstitutional. 82 C.J.S. Statutes § 155, page 262 (1953). In order to be a general law it is not required in all cases that a statute literally extend to all the people of the state in every geographical part thereof, but it may be constitutionally intended to operate within a limited territory or place. 82 C.J.S. Statutes § 162, pages 270-271 (1953); 50 Am.Jur. Statutes section 12, page 29 (1944). This Court held over a half century ago that a law is general not by reason of the fact that it may be operative upon every citizen of the state but 'because every person that can be brought within its predicament becomes subject to its operation.' Drainage Dist. v. Buckner, 108 Miss. 427, 66 So. 784 (1914). See Delta & Pine Land Co. v. Board of Supervisors, 228 So.2d 893 (Miss.1969); Culley v. Pearl River Indus. Comm'n, 234 Miss. 788, 108 So.2d 390 (1959). It is to be noted that the act under attack states within itself that the objects and benefits created by the act are necessary for the residents of the district and 'the necessity in the public interest of the state at large . . ..'

Appellants correctly point out that the act confers upon Mantachie all powers authorized by Miss.Gen.Laws Chapter 494 (1950), as amended, which has been codified as Mississippi Code 1942 Annotated section 3519-08(e) (1956). They also point out that the last cited code section confers on a manicipality the right of eminent domain in regard to the construction and installation of natural gas transmission and distribution systems. On this basis they state that Miss.Gen.Laws Chapter 309 (1966) creating Mantachie is unconstitutional because it attempts to give Mantachie the right of eminent domain and therefore is repugnant to section 90(r) of the constitution, supra.

The eminent domain rights of Mantachie are not established by the act creating Mantachie. Said act merely provides that Mantachie would have all powers authorized by Mississippi General Laws Chapter 494 (1950), codified as Mississippi Code 1942 Annotated section 3519-10 (1956), et seq. When a person by birth or naturalization becomes a citizen of this state, such person immediately becomes beneficiary to certain rights previously enjoyed by others. Similarly, when Mantachie became a legal entity, it became beneficiary to certain rights and powers previously provided by general legislation applicable to enumerated legal entities. The right of eminent domian is granted by general law to all municipalities, companies, public utility districts or natural gas districts (existing for certain enumerated purposes) by Mississippi Code 1942 Annotated section 2780 (1956), now codified as 2749-24 (Supp.1972).

This Court has declared void legislation which was held to be indirect violation of the constitutional provision in Mississippi Constitution Article 4, section 90(q) (1890) prohibiting local laws relating to 'stock laws, watercourses and fences.' Such cases (relied upon by appellants herein) are readily distinguishable from the case at bar because at the time such cases were decided there was no general statute in existence granting to drainage districts powers concerning or related to stock laws, water courses and fences. Crenshaw v. State, 101 Miss. 457, 58 So. 219 (1912); Belzoni Drainage Comm'n v. Winn, 98 Miss. 359, 53 So. 778 (1910). The case of Giles v. City of Biloxi, 237 Miss. 65, 112 So.2d 815 (1959), relied on by appellants is not controlling on the question under discussion. In that case the statute which we held void purported to authorize 'the sale or lease of reclaimed submerged lands' and was clearly void under Mississippi Constitution Article 4, section 90(u) (1890). There we dealt with a statute, not general in nature, which sought to permit sale or lease of state lands to a private corporation. The statute authorized establishment of a Bridge and Park Commission by Biloxi and specifically empowered the Commission to exercise the power of eminent domain.

The Legislature has considerable discretion in questions such as that before us. Horack, Sutherland Statutory Constitution Vol. 2, § 2114, pp. 70-72 (3d Ed. 1943). Here, the Legislature included as a class certain residents within an area composed of parts of two counties. The...