People ex rel. Public Service Commission v. New York Tel. Co.

• Decision Date: 05 March 1942
• Citation: 287 N.Y. 803,40 N.E.2d 1020
• Court: New York Court of Appeals Court of Appeals
• Parties: People ex rel. Public Service Commission v. New York Tel. Co.

287 N.Y. 803

40 N.E.2d 1020

PEOPLE et rel. PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION, Respondent,

v.NEW YORK TELEPHONE CO. et al., Appellants.

Court of Appeals of New York.

March 5, 1942.

Appeal from Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Third Department, 262 App.Div. 440, 29 N.Y.S.2d 513.

Proceeding by the People of the State of New York, on the relation of the Public Service Commission of the State of New York, State Division, Department of Public Service, against the New York Telephone Company, Bowman-Biltmore Hotels Corporation, and others, and Rudolph Lellach and another, doing business under the firm name and style of the New Continental Hotel and others, joined as parties to this proceeding pursuant to an order of the Supreme Court dated in 27th Day of May, 1940, to enforce tariff schedules fixing the rate that hotels may charge their guests for public telephone service.

The proceeding was instituted by petition on the part of the Public Service Commission pursuant to section 103 of the Public Service Law,Consol.Laws, c. 48, and the chief question at issue was whether hotels may charge for service in connection with intrastate telephone calls in excess of or below the rate specified in the tariff schedules.Coupled with that question was the question of whether hotels may be designated as the agents of the telephone company so far as they furnish telephone service.

The schedules allowed surcharges to be made by the hotels to their guests above the common rate for public telephone service, and certain hotels regarded the enumerated surcharges inadequate and denied the power of the commission to order the tariff filed asserting that they were not bound by the tariff in surcharging their guests.A motion to add certain hotels as parties was granted and petitioner's motion for summary relief was denied without prejudice to renewal in an opinion by the Supreme Court, Special Term, Albany County, 174 Misc. 517, 21 N.Y.S.2d 405.A judgment and order of the Supreme Court, Special Term, Albany County, 175 Misc. 128, 22 N.Y.S.2d 837, restraining the telephone company and the defendant hotels from making charges for intrastate telephone calls above or below the rate specified in the tariff schedules as filed with the Public Service Commission and directing the telephone company forthwith to enforce the terms and conditions of the tariff schedules were affirmed by the Appellate Division, 262 App.Div. 440, 29 N.Y.S.2d 513, and from a judgment of the Appellate Division, entered on the order of that court, the New York Telephone Company, Bowman-Biltmore Hotels Corporation, and others...