Home > Journals > Michigan Law Review > MLR > Volume 38 > Issue 8 (1940)
Abstract
The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, by order of March 15, 1938, required appellant, the Bell Telephone Company of Pennsylvania, to reduce its intrastate toll rates for distances exceeding thirty-six miles so as to conform to rates charged by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company for comparable distances for interstate services. After full hearing the commission based its order upon .findings that the interstate American Company offered at substantially lower rates the very same service, with identical facilities, accorded by its intrastate subsidiary, plus the additional service furnished by a connecting company, and that hence the higher intrastate rates constituted an unreasonable discrimination against intrastate patrons in violation of section 304 of the Public Utility Law of Pennsylvania. On appeal, the superior court of Pennsylvania affirmed the order. Appellant based its appeal to the United States Supreme Court upon three propositions: (1) that the commission's order was wholly without support in the evidence and hence constituted a denial of due process; (2) that the order, based upon discrimination only, prescribed rates not found to be reasonable and as such was arbitrary and hence a denial of due process; and (3) that the order through regulation of interstate rates imposed a direct burden upon interstate commerce. Held, per curiam, that none of appellant's three contentions, where confiscation was expressly disclaimed, presented a substantial federal question. Appeal dismissed. Bell Telephone Co. of Pennsylvania v. Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, (U. S. 1940) 60 S. Ct. 411.
Recommended Citation
Michigan Law Review,
PUBLIC UTILITIES - DUE PROCESS - VALIDITY OF ORDER REDUCING INTRASTATE TELEPHONE RATES TO CONFORM TO INTERSTATE RATES,
38
Mich. L. Rev.
1347
(1940).
Available at:
https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol38/iss8/27