State ex rel. Seaboard Air Line R. Co. v. King

• Decision Date: 06 March 1957
• Citation: 93 So.2d 368
• Parties: STATE of Florida, ex rel. SEABOARD AIR LINE RAILROAD COMPANY, a corporation, and Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company, a corporation, Relators, v. Wilbur C. KING, Alan S. Boyd, and Jerry W. Carter, as members of and constituting Florida Railroad and Public Utilities Commission, and Rockana Carriers, Inc., a corporation, as an interested party, Respondents.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

Page 368

93 So.2d 368

18 P.U.R.3d 299

STATE of Florida, ex rel. SEABOARD AIR LINE RAILROAD COMPANY, a corporation, and Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company, a corporation, Relators, v. Wilbur C. KING, Alan S. Boyd, and Jerry W. Carter, as members of and constituting Florida Railroad and Public Utilities Commission, and Rockana Carriers, Inc., a corporation, as an interested party, Respondents.

Supreme Court of Florida, Special Division B.

March 6, 1957.

D. Fred McMullen of Ausley & Ausley, Tallahassee, and Allen & Dell, Tampa, for realtors.

Lewis W. Petteway and Guyte P. McCord, Jr., Tallahassee, for Florida R. R. and Public Utilities Commission.

Hill, Hill & Dickenson, Tampa, for Rockana Carriers, Inc., respondents.

THOMAS, Acting Chief Justice.

This court issued an alternative writ of mandamus, 6 November 1956, commanding the respondents, who are members of Florida Railroad and Public Utilities Commission, to cancel a 'letter order' of the commission granting temporary authority to Rockana Carriers, Inc., to engage in certain transportation operations, and to revoke the rule of the commission, numbered 61, or to show cause for their failure to comply with the writ.

This action was an aftermath of the litigation we concluded by our opinion in Seaboard Air Line Railroad Co. v. King, Fla., 89 So.2d 246, by which we quashed an order of the commission that a certificate of public convenience and necessity held by L. H. Sims be cancelled and reissued to Rockana Carriers, Inc.

The matter comes to us again on the motions of the commission and Rockana Carriers, Inc., to quash and the answer of the latter.

After the decision in the cited case was announced, Rockana Carriers, Inc., immediately applied for a certificate of convenience and necessity authorizing the carriage in which it had been engaged under the certificate this court had held invalid, and inasmuch as the service had been furnished for some time under that certificate, the carrier sought and was granted temporary authority to continue against the day when the formal procedure, we held had not earlier been followed, should be conducted to determine whether or not the carrier should be awarded a certificate of public convenience and necessity.

The commission has adopted a rule, Rule 61, that an application for temporary authority to operate will be considered when formal application for a certificate of public convenience and necessity has been made, the written request for interim authority has been filed, immediate and urgent need for the transportation has been shown to exist, and all certificate holders whose rights might be adversely affected have been notified. Such temporary authority extends only to the time the application for a certificate is determined by the commission or by the Supreme Court.

The relators assert that the commission had no power to grant temporary authority to the carrier, and that the rule of the commission on which it was based is illegal and void.

The commission is given extensive supervisory and regulatory power over transportation companies engaged in common carriage by automobile, Sec. 323.07, Florida Statutes 1955, and F.S.A., and in exercising its duties 'may * * * prescribe rules and regulations applicable to any and all such auto transportation companies.' Also by Sec. 350.12(2)(m), Florida Statutes 1955, and F.S.A., the commission was empowered to 'prescribe all rules and regulations appropriate for the execution of any of the powers conferred upon them by law either in express terms or by implication * * *.' In this section it is further provided:

'* * * Every rule, regulation, * * * or order heretofore or hereafter made by the commissioners shall be deemed and held to be within their jurisdiction and their powers, and to be reasonable and just and such as ought to have been made in the premises and to have been properly made and arrived at in due form of procedure and such as can and ought to be executed, unless the contrary plainly appears on the face thereof or be made to appear by clear and satisfactory evidence, and shall not be set aside or held...