State ex rel. and to Use of Panhandle Eastern Pipe Line Co. v. Public Service Commission

• Decision Date: 21 March 1936
• Docket Number: 33118
• Parties: STATE ex rel., to Use of PANHANDLE EASTERN PIPE LINE CO., v. PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

93 S.W.2d 675

STATE ex rel., to Use of PANHANDLE EASTERN PIPE LINE CO., v. PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION

No. 33118

Supreme Court of Missouri, Second Division

March 21, 1936

Respondents' Motion for Rehearing Stricken From Files for Failure to Comply With

G. J Neuner and C. R. Kirkbride, both of Kansas City, for appellant Panhandle Eastern Pipe Line Co.

D. D McDonald, Gen. Counsel, of Jefferson City, for respondent Public Service Commission.

C. R Boyd, City Atty., of Fulton, for respondent Fulton, Mo.

OPINION

BOHLING, Commissioner.

Relator, Panhandle Eastern Pipe Line Company, a Delaware corporation, prosecutes this review of an order of the Public Service Commission of the state of Missouri, respondent, requiring relator 'to furnish natural gas to the city of Fulton at reasonable rates.'

Relator, duly authorized to do business in Missouri, owns and operates a main pipe line system which commences in the state of Texas and runs through the states of Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, and into Indiana, and transports through said pipe line and laterals therefrom natural gas acquired, in so far as here involved, in the states of Texas and Kansas for the purpose of sale in large quantities to local distributing gas utilities at wholesale and industrial plants. The diameter of the main line pipes is twenty-four inches in Kansas, twenty-two inches in Missouri, and somewhat smaller in Illinois and Indiana. Among the distributing utilities purchasing natural gas from relator in Missouri is Central States Gas Utilities Company, a corporation, owning and operating local gas distribution systems in several cities and towns in Missouri. Said Central States Gas Utilities Company is a subsidiary of relator and the corporate officials of said subsidiary and relator are in several instances the same individuals. The delivery of natural gas by relator to local distributing utilities and industries is effected by means of laterals from its main line. The gas is compressed to a pressure of four hundred fifty pounds by means of a compressor station for transmission through the state of Missouri. On the laterals an appliance exists near the main line to reduce the pressure of the gas in the laterals. At the termini of the laterals are measuring and regulator stations, and the local distributing utility (or industry) takes delivery of the gas at such measuring station under high pressure and in large quantities, after which the pressure is reduced and the gas made fit for resale at retail in the local distribution system (or in case of service to an industry for use for industrial purposes). Service from relator's mains is rendered under contract only; and relator owns none of the facilities beyond the outlet side of the measuring meter.

The Harbison Walker Refractories Company, a corporation, has a plant located at Fulton, Mo., and contracted with relator for a supply of natural gas for industrial purposes. Relator constructed a six-inch lateral pipe line from its main pipe line to a point outside the corporate limits of said city of Fulton, where a measuring and regulator station was constructed for delivery of gas to said Harbison-Walker Refractories Company. After unsuccessful efforts on the part of the city of Fulton to effect an agreement with relator for a supply of natural gas, so acquired and so transported by relator, for distribution and resale at retail by said municipality as a local municipally owned and operated gas utility, proper proceedings were instituted before respondent to compel relator to render such service to said municipality as such utility.

The opinion of the Public Service Commission, handed down with the order aforesaid, recognized that the underlying issue was whether the proposed order would constitute an interference with the interstate commerce of defendant, but held that relator 'and its subsidiary, the Central State Gas Utilities Company, constitute one common enterprise, which enterprise is actually engaged in the local distribution of gas in...