Me. Motor Coaches, Inc. v. Pub. Utilities Comm'n

• Decision Date: 18 November 1925
• Citation: 130 A. 866
• Parties: MAINE MOTOR COACHES, Inc. v. PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION.
• Court: Maine Supreme Court

130 A. 866

MAINE MOTOR COACHES, Inc.

v. PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION.

Supreme Judicial Court of Maine.

Nov. 18, 1925.

Exceptions from Supreme Judicial Court, Penobscot County, at Law.

Application by the Maine Motor Coaches, Inc., to the Public Utilities Commission for a certificate to operate motor busses. The application was denied, and petitioner applied for a writ of mandamus to compel issuance of the certificate. A peremptory writ was refused, and petitioner excepts. Exceptions overruled.

Argued before WILSON, C. J., and PHILBROOK, MORRILL, DEASY, STURGIS, BARNES, and BASSETT, JJ.

Charles D. Bartlett and George F. Eaton both of Bangor, for petitioner.

Raymond Fellows, Atty. Gen., for respondent.

WILSON, C. J. The petitioner, under chapter 211 of the Public Laws of 1923, applied to the Public Utilities Commission for a certificate to operate motor busses on certain highways of the state over prescribed routes for the carriage of passengers for hire. After hearing, a certificate was refused by the commission. The petitioner then applied to a justice of this court for a writ of mandamus to compel the issuance of a certificate on the ground that it was a ministerial act, and no discretion is vested in the commission in the issuing of such certificates.

The justice below, after hearing, refused to issue the peremptory writ, and the case is before this court on the petitioner's exception to the decree of the justice below. Unless it appears that the decree below was based on some erroneous ruling of law, or there was an abuse of judicial discretion, exceptions do not lie. Day v. Booth, 122 Me. 91, 118 A. 899.

No complaint is made of any abuse of judicial discretion; the sole issue being the interpretation of the act above referred to, and particularly of section 4 of Pub. Laws 1917, c. 184, as amended by section 2 thereof.

At the time of the enactment in the different states of nearly, if not all of the acts regulating public utilities, the transportation of passengers for hire by automobiles had not reached a stage where they were classed as common carriers in the acts, and were not made subject to the regulations imposed on street and steam railroads.

Within the last decade, however, motor vehicles have in various ways entered the field of common carriers, in some cases to the great financial detriment of the long-established transportation systems. They have finally compelled recognition as an important factor in transportation. The first indications of recognition of their importance was legislation in nearly all the states regulating or imposing restrictions upon the operation of the so-called jitney busses; and later in the enactment of statutes regulating the operation of motor busses carrying passengers for hire over regular routes, and imposing upon them conditions similar to those imposed upon other public utilities.

Such, in general, has been the history of the legislation in this state relating to the use of motor vehicles for the carriage of passengers for hire over regular routes. In 1917 the Legislature took the first step (chapter 254, P. L.) by authorizing the highway commission to grant permits for the operation of jitney busses, so called, but only with a view to protecting the highways by regulating the loads and the public by regulating the speed.

In 1921 (chapter 184) the automobile had so far entered the field of common carriers that their regulation and control was vested in the Public Utilities Commission, and the operation of motor vehicles on the highways of the state in such manner as to afford a means of transportation similar to that offered by street railroads and over regular routes was prohibited, unless a certificate permitting such operation was first obtained from the Public Utilities Commission.

Again in 1923 (chapter 211) the law was still further extended and the operation of such motor vehicles brought more completely under the control of the Public Utilities Commission; the commission being authorized to revoke a certificate at any time for failure to comply with any of its regulations.

And in 1925 (chapter 167) the authority of the...