Lodi Tel. Co. v. Public Service Commission
| Decision Date | 05 November 1952 |
| Parties | LODI TEL. CO. v. PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION. |
| Court | Wisconsin Supreme Court |
On review by the circuit court of an order of the Public Service Commission entered September 14, 1951, an original order of the Commission dated April 10, 1950 was confirmed.
Upon a petition by Lodi Telephone Company seeking to set aside the order of the Public Service Commission directing the Commonwealth Telephone Company to extend service to some thirteen persons in a rural community, these proceedings are before the court.
There was an application by said individuals to the Commonwealth Telephone Company for telephone service at its Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin, exchange. The Commonwealth Telephone Company rejected said application. On April 10, 1950, the Commission entered an order directing such service to be rendered. There was a motion for rehearing, which was denied, and the Commission found and determined that reasonably adequate service to the public requires the extension of telephone service to the petitioners from the Prairie du Sac-Sauk City exchange of the Commonwealth Telephone Company. The following order was entered requiring that 'Commonwealth Telephone Company extend service from its Prairie du Sac-Sauk City Exchange to serve the residences of Eustace Ryan, Nick Lamberty, Howard Enge, Arthur Ryan, Phillip Bannon, Harry Bannon, John Wehler, Clarence Ryan, George Walker, Lawrence Ryan, Joseph Ryan, Warren Carncross, and Ralph Ryan located in the town of West Point, Columbia County,' and that 'such extension of service be completed by October 1, 1950.'
The Commission found, among other things: That the Commonwealth Telephone Company, as well as the Lodi Telephone Company, holds itself out and is engaged in offering telephone service to the public in the area involved in the town of West Point, Columbia county, as well as in other parts of said town, with a portion of its plant necessary to supply such service located in said town. That the area in which the interested petitioners resided was materially affected as to its trading zone by the completion of a toll-free bridge across the Wisconsin River at Prairie du Sac, and this community became closely connected with and is now a part of the Prairie du Sac-Sauk City trading zone. That the social, church and school affiliations of petitioners are now centered in or about the Prairie du Sac-Sauk City area, which is closer to their homes than is their former center of Lodi. That fire protection is supplied to this area by the Sauk City Fire Department. That the present telephone service rendered through the Lodi Telephone Company to this area is not satisfactory to petitioners for good and substantial reasons, and that the present telephone service rendered the petitioners by the Lodi Telephone Company in this particular area is not adequate. That on May 31, 1951, the Lodi Telephone Company filed a foreign exchange tariff with the Commission, which tariff was accepted for filing on June 8, 1951, but that because of the facts existing, the alternative supplied by said foreign exchange tariff did not furnish the petitioners with reasonably adequate telephone service and facilities. That reasonably adequate service to the public requires the extension of telephone service to petitioners herein from the Prairie du Sac-Sauk City exchange of the Commonwealth Telephone Company. That public convenience and necessity require that said company accordingly so extend its facilities and plant in the town of West Point, Columbia county. The Commission having concluded that it had jurisdiction under sec. 196.50, Stats. to issue such an order directing the Commonwealth Telephone Company to extend service from its Prairie du Sac-Sauk City exchange to the petitioners herein, it entered an order affirming a previous order issued by the Commission on April 10, 1950 to that end. The circuit court confirmed. The Lodi Telephone Company appeals.
Rieser, Mathys, McNamara & Stafford, Madison, for appellant.
Charles J. Ploetz, Prairie du Sac, for intervenors.
Vernon Thomson, Atty. Gen., William E. Torkelson, Chief Counsel, and Samuel Bryan, Madison, for Public Service Commission.
The individuals who originally petitioned for the service prayed for in the proceedings before the Commission are residents in the town of West Point, and at present they are patrons of the Lodi Telephone Company. For reasons appealing to them as sufficient, they desire the benefit of service of the Commonwealth Telephone Company. The Commonwealth Company is now rendering local service in the town of West Point.
The legislature, by due enactment, has determined that the public interest requires that public utilities shall 'within their undertaking, furnish their service to all who reasonably require the same.' Northern States Power Company v. Public Service Commission, 246 Wis. 215, 16 N.W.2d 790, 795. The interested individuals and the location of their residences are within the limits thus described. This places the public utility 'under a legal obligation to render adequate and reasonably efficient service' to them as members of the public to whom the utility's public use and scope of operation extend, providing, of course, that they apply for such service and comply with the reasonable rules and regulations of the public utility. 43 Am.Jur. 586, sec. 22; sec. 196.03(1) Stats.
The order here under review requires the Commonwealth Telephone Company to extend its line in the town of West Point, where it is operating, so as to render local telephone service to the named petitioners who, in search of such service, have appealed to the Public Service Commission. The Commonwealth Telephone Company does not question the order, nor the fact as to the service being within the scope of its undertaking, and the evidence submitted sustains the findings of the Commission, and therefore warrants the ruling made. Sec. 196.405, Stats.
The Lodi Telephone Company is appellant here and objects to the order of the Commission. It urges that it is being deprived of its property and the right to serve these same customers under its indeterminate permit. While under the Commission's order the result may be that service of several of Lodi's customers by the Commonwealth Telephone Company will occur and their patronage be lost to the Lodi Telephone Company, still the Lodi Telephone Company is not deprived of any existing unqualified legal...
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