PUBLIC UTILITIES - RATES -VALUE OF THE SERVICE AS BASIS

Authors

Abstract

The power company had been serving a sparsely settled rural district in Utah for many years; it had never during its history paid dividends of over 5 per cent, during the last fourteen years it had averaged 3.75 per cent, and during the last five years 2.75 per cent. On the petition of customers who argued that the company should bear part of the burdens of the economic depression, the state utilities commission ordered a ten per cent reduction of all rates on the basis that the charge should not be more than the service was worth. Held, while the value of the service is important and should be considered, it is not controlling. The utility's property is still privately owned and as such it cannot be subjected to confiscatory rates without violating the Fourteenth Amendment. If the rates are more than the service is worth, the customers will have to find a substitute. Telluride Power Co. v. Public Utilities Comm., (D. C. Utah 1934) 8 F. Supp. 341.

Recommended Citation

PUBLIC UTILITIES - RATES -VALUE OF THE SERVICE AS BASIS, 33 Mich. L. Rev. 1273 (1935).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol33/iss8/25