Napa Valley Electric Co v. Board of Railroad Com Rs of California
| Citation | 40 S.Ct. 174,64 L.Ed. 310,251 U.S. 366 |
| Decision Date | 19 January 1920 |
| Docket Number | No. 401,401 |
| Parties | NAPA VALLEY ELECTRIC CO. v. BOARD OF RAILROAD COM'RS OF CALIFORNIA et al |
| Court | United States Supreme Court |
Messrs. Milton T. U'Ren, of San Francisco, Cal., and D. L. Beard, of Napa, Cal., for appellant.
Mr. Douglas Brookman, of San Francisco, Cal., for appellees.
Appeal from decree of the District Court dismissing bill of appellant, herein called the Electric Company, upon motion of appellees, herein called the Commission.
The ground of the motion and the decree sustaining it was that it appeared from the averments of the bill that the controversy it stated was res judicata. The bill is long, but the grounds of it can be stated with fair brevity. The Electric Company is a California corporation and has been engaged for more than 10 years in supplying electricity (called in the bill electric energy) for domestic use in the town of St. Helena and vicinity, and the Calistoga Electric Company, also a California corporation, has been for 7 years a distributing agency of the Electric Company and the latter is not as to the Calistoga Company a public utility. By virtue of certain circumstances the Electric Company entered into a contract with one E. L. Armstrong by which it agreed not to extend its lines into Calistoga territory, and Armstrong agreed to buy from it all of the electricity to be sold by him for 18 years. At that time the Electric Company under the laws of California had a right to extend its lines and become a competitor of other companies or individuals.
September 14, 1911, the Calistoga Company became the successor in interest of Armstrong and to his rights and obligations under the contract with the Electric Company, and the Calistoga Company acknowledged the fact of such succession and continued to buy its electricity from the Electric Company at the rates set forth in the contract, until November 18, 1913, when it petitioned the Commission to set aside the contract and compel the Electric Company to accept other rates than those mentioned in the contract.
The Electric Company answered the petition, set up the contract and alleged that any change in its rates would be a violation of section 10, article 1, of the Constitution of the United States and the Fourteenth Amendment thereto.
January 24, 1914, the Commission instituted an investigation on its own motion which with the petition of the Calistoga Company was consolidated. The petitions were heard together upon evidence and submitted.
The Commission subsequently made an order fixing rates much less than those of the contract.
June 20, 1914, the Electric Company filed a petition for rehearing, setting up its rights under the Constitution of the United States. A rehearing was denied.
May 1, 1914, the Electric Company and the Calistoga Company entered into an agreement fixing rates subject to the approval of the Commission which the Calistoga Company agreed to secure. It did secure an informal approval of them and paid them until June 27, 1916.
The rates fixed by the Commission never became effective and therefore the Electric Company did not petition for a review of them by the Supreme Court of the state nor commence proceedings in any court of the United States to enjoin the order establishing them or to have it set aside as null and void.
June 27, 1916, the Calistoga Company again petitioned the Commission to establish other rates than those fixed in the agreement of that company with the Electric Company. The latter company filed a counter petition to have established the rates fixed in the contract of May 1, 1914 (reduced to writing September 15, 1914), and the petition and that of the Calistoga Company came on to be heard and after evidence adduced the Commission, November 15, 1916, reduced the rates fixed in the written contract of September 15, 1914, and made the reduced rates effective December 20, 1916.
A rehearing was denied May 24, 1917, and on June 20, 1917, the Electric Company duly filed a petition in the Supreme Court of the state of California praying that a writ of review issue commanding the Commission on a day named to certify to the court a full and complete record of the proceedings before it, the Commission, and that upon a return of the writ the orders and decisions of the Commission be reversed, vacated and annulled upon the ground that they violated the company's rights under the Constitution of the United States, particularly under section 10, article 1, and under section 1 of article 14 of the Amendments thereto. The Supreme Court of California denied the 'petition for writ of review and refused to issue a writ of review, as prayed for in said petition.'
On or about January 27, 1918, the California Light & Telephone Company became a party to the contracts between the Electric Company and the Calistoga Company by reason of conveyances from the latter company.
In the present bill it is alleged that the orders and decisions of the Commission were illegal, were in excess of its jurisdiction and that the Electric Company has no adequate remedy at law and prays a decree declaring the orders and decisions null and void, that they be enjoined of enforcement or made the basis of suits against the company to enforce them.
The Commission and other defendants moved to dismiss on the ground that it appeared from the allegations of the bill that 'the subject-matter thereof was res judicata' and that there was no ground stated entitling the company to the relief prayed. The motion was granted and to the decree adjudging a dismissal of the bill this writ of error is directed.
The District Court (Judge Van Fleet) based its ruling upon the allegations of the bill that the Electric Company filed in the Supreme Court a petition for a review of the decision and order of the Commission and for their annulment, and that the Supreme Court denied the petition.
The Electric Company to the ruling of the court opposes the contention that the Supreme Court denied the company's 'petition for a preliminary writ and refused to even cause the record in the case, certified by...
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