State v. New England Tel. & Tel. Co.
| Citation | 103 N.H. 394,173 A.2d 728 |
| Parties | , 40 P.U.R.3d 525 STATE v. NEW ENGLAND TELEPHONE & TELEGRAPH CO. |
| Decision Date | 14 September 1961 |
| Court | Supreme Court of New Hampshire |
Gardner C. Turner, Atty. Gen., and Frederic T. Greenhalge, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.
McLane, Carleton, Graf, Greene & Brown, Kenneth F. Graf, Manchester, for New England Tel. & Tel. Co.
John N. Nassikas, Sp. Counsel, Manchester, for Public Utilities Commission.
Perkins & Dowst, Concord, for International Brotherhood of Telephone Workers, Local 20.
The statutory provisions appearing in RSA 378:27, 29 and 30 are products of the last two decades designed to protect the utility or the ratepayer, as the case may be, against losses by reason of temporary rates when permanent rates prove to be higher or lower than temporary rates. Sections 27 and 29, enacted in 1941, were designed to protect utilities against confiscatory rates and to permit recoupment of any deficiency in return suffered under a temporary order. Public Service Co. of New Hampshire v. State, 102 N.H. 66, 68, 150 A.2d 810.
Section 30 was enacted in 1951 upon the recommendation of an interim legislative commission established in 1949, in an effort to afford comparable protection to ratepayers, should temporary rates prove to have been too high when permanent rates are established. In the words of the interim commission, section 30 was proposed 'to provide for a filing of a bond * * * to guarantee a return to the rate payer of the difference between the amount earned by the temporary rate and the permanent rate if the permanent rate [when established] is less than the temporary rate * * *.' Report of the Interim Legislative Commission to Study Laws Regulating Public Utilities (1951) 53. The Legislature not only adopted the interim commission's proposal but also amended section 6 of the chapter to provide for a like bond to be filed when a utility places in effect a schedule of higher rates following a suspension of the effective date thereof pending investigation by the Commission. See RSA 378:6 New England Tel. & Tel. Co. v. State, 97 N.H. 555, 556, 92 A.2d 408.
Sections 29 and 30 have since been regarded as particularizations of the comprehensive rate-making powers conferred upon the Commission in its early years (Laws 1911, c. 164, § 11(a); RSA 378:7) rather than as latter-day limitations upon those powers. The authority of the Commission to establish current rates as temporary rates has been considered well within its discretion to 'determine the just and reasonable or lawful rates * * * to be thereafter observed' (RSA 378:7), and 'if it be of the opinion that the public interest so requires [to] immediately fix * * * reasonable temporary rates.' RSA 378:27; Public Service Co. v. State, 102 N.H. 66, 150 A.2d 810; New Eng. Tel. Co. v. State, 95 N.H. 515, 68 A.2d 114. See New England Tel. & Tel. Company, 31 N.H.P.S.C. 337, 343.
The circumstances of the case before us do not fall within the precise authorization of section 30, since the 'temporary rates * * * prescribed' are not 'higher than those previously in effect,' but the same. Yet the evidence upon which the Commission based the second paragraph of its order, providing for a reduction of rates below the current level in the event the company should not choose to file a bond, warranted a finding that permanent rates might well prove lower than current rates. Thus it could properly find that the occasion was one in which section 30 was intended to apply, falling within the purpose stated by the interim commission namely: 'to guarantee a return to the rate payer of the difference * * *.' Cf. Chicopee Mfg. Corporation v. Company, 97 N.H. 553, 89 A.2d 751.
The order from which the State appeals did not require the utility to furnish the bond in question. Intrastate rates lower than those currently in effect were fixed by the second paragraph of the order; but the preceding provisions permitted the utility to retain its current rates as temporary...
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Legislative Utility Consumers' Council v. Public Service Co.
...that the Commission's ratemaking power "is plenary save in a few specifically excepted instances." State v. New England Tel. & Tel. Co., 103 N.H. 394, 397, 173 A.2d 728, 730 (1961), Citing Lorenz v. Stearns, 85 N.H. 494, 506, 161 A. 205, 212 The Commission has traditionally performed its ra......
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Public Service Co. of New Hampshire v. State
...will preclude recovery of this difference. The background of these statutory provisions was reviewed in State v. New England Tel. & Tel. Co., 103 N.H. 394, 173 A.2d 728 (1961), where it was held that the commission might properly permit a utility to retain its current rates as temporary rat......
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Appeal of Pennichuck Water Works
...which the rates allowed in the underlying permanent rate proceeding may apply, RSA 378:27, :29; see State v. New England Tel. & Tel. Co., 103 N.H. 394, 395, 173 A.2d 728, 729 (1961), this order would allow Pennichuck to apply its new permanent rates on all bills rendered on or after April 3......
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Nelson v. Public Service Co., 78-236
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