Mountain States Power Co v. Public Service Commission of Montana, s. 38
| Citation | 299 U.S. 167,81 L.Ed. 99,57 S.Ct. 168 |
| Decision Date | 07 December 1936 |
| Docket Number | 39,Nos. 38,s. 38 |
| Parties | MOUNTAIN STATES POWER CO. v. PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION OF MONTANA et al. (two cases) |
| Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
Appeals from the District Court of the United States for the District of Montana.
Messrs. Hance H. Cleland, of Olympia, Wash., and Elisha Hanson, of Washington, D.C., for appellant.
Mr. Albert H. Angstman, of Helena, Mont., for appellees.
Each of these causes presents the same point of law.
Appellee, Public Service Commission of Montana, issued an order requiring the appellant Company to reduce its charges for electricity in Baker, No. 38; also another requiring reduction in Forsyth, No. 39. They were attacked as confiscatory by separate bills in the United States District Court. That court, three judges sitting, granted motions to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction. These direct appeals question its action.
Prior to May 14, 1934, paragraph (1), § 24, Judicial Code, as amended (U.S.C.A. tit. 28, § 41(1), provided:
'The district courts shall have original jurisdiction as follows:
'(1) Of all suits of a civil nature, at common law or in equity, brought by the United States, or by any officer thereof authorized by law to sue, or between citizens of the same State claiming lands under grants from different States; or, where the matter in controversy exceeds, exclusive of interest and costs, the sum or value of $3,000, and (a) arises under the Constitution or laws of the United States, or treaties made, or which shall be made, under their authority, or (b) is between citizens of different States, or (c) is between citizens of a State and foreign States, citizens, or subjects.'
On that day the so-called Johnson Act, 48 Stat. c. 283, p. 775 (28 U.S.C.A. § 41(1, 1a) became effective. Section 1 directs:
'That the first paragraph of section 24 of the Judicial Code, as amended, is amended by adding at the end thereof the following: 'Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions of this paragraph, no district court shall have jurisdiction of any suit to enjoin, suspend, or restrain the enforcement, operation, or execution of any order of an administrative board or commission of a State, or any rate-making body of any political subdivision thereof, or to enjoin, suspend, or restrain any action in compliance with any such order, where jurisdiction is based solely upon the ground of diversity of citizenship, or the repugnance of such order to the Constitution of the United States, where such order (1) affects rates chargeable by a public utility, (2) does not interfere with interstate commerce, and (3) has been made after reasonable notice and hearing, and where a plain, speedy, and efficient remedy may be had at law or in equity in the courts of such State."
Section 3906, Revised Codes of Montana 1921:
'Any party in interest being dissatisfied with an order of the commission fixing any rate or rates, fares, charges, classifications, joint rate or rates, or any order fixing any regulations, practices, or services, may within ninety days commence an action in the district court of the proper county against the commission and other interested parties as defendants, to vacate and set aside any such order on the ground that the rate or rates, fares, charges, classifications, joint rate or rates, fixed in such order is unlawful or unreasonable, or that any such regulation, practice, or service, fixed in such order, is unlawful or unreasonable. * * *
'No injunction shall issue suspending or staying any order of the commission except upon application to the court or judge thereof, notice to the commission having been first given and hearing having been had thereon; provided, that all...
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