Ashley Tri-County Mutual Telephone Co. v. New Ashley Telephone Co.
Ashley Tri-County Mutual Telephone Co. v. New Ashley Telephone Co.
Opinion of the Court
In both cases the plaintiffs in the trial courts were telephone companies that had been es
The chief and determinative question in this case is: Does a telephone company, operating under the mutual membership plan employed by it, under the stated facts, require a certificate of necessity for the public convenience, before it may exercise the right or franchise of owning and operating a plant for the furnishing of telephonic service in a municipality or locality where there is already in operation a telephone company furnishing adequate service ?
For the proper determination of this question it must be conceded that the invading competitive companies were corporations organized as mutual telephone companies not for profit. These latter companies seek to escape the requirement of the code section, supra, by reliance upon other sections of the code, notably Section 614-1 and subsections immediately following. These sections vest in the public service commission jurisdiction and supervisory powers over the public utilities therein defined. By Section 614-2q, General Code, this juris
“No telephone company shall exercise any permit, right, license or franchise that may have been heretofore granted but not actually exercised or that may hereafter be granted to own or operate a plant for the furnishing of any telephone service, thereunder in any municipality or locality, where there is in operation a telephone company furnishing adequate service, unless such telephone company first secures from the commission a certificate after public hearing of all parties interested that the exercising of such license, permit, right or franchise is proper and necessary for the public Convenience.”
By other sections of the code (102 O. L., 549) the general assembly sought to regulate and supervise public utilities, using that term generically, and including within the definition of the term “public utilities” those telephone companies operating such utilities for profit. But by Section 614-52, General Code, the legislature specifically treated telephone companies as public utilities requiring special legislation. Telephone companies were thereby taken from the general scheme of public utility regulation and there was added and applied to this particular utility a statutory mandate not applicable to others. Having in view the public
In both of the cases stated the mutual companies are of such character and scope as would stamp them, not only as telephone companies, but companies which might affect the public convenience alluded to in the act. Such being the case, the tribunal provided in the first instance for the determination 'of that fact was the public service commission of the state. We do not hold that private telephone lines,, or that even all mutual lines, shall in all cases require the certificate named.
In each case the judgment of the court of appeals is affirmed.
Judgment affirmed.
Concurring Opinion
concurring. I concur in the judgment of affirmance in this case solely for the reason that these mutual telephone companies are claiming the right to erect poles and string wires thereon, over and along the public streets and alleys, under and in pursuance of a grant or franchise to them by the council of the municipalities named in the petition.
Such rights cannot be granted in the streets and alleys of a municipal corporation, except to a public service corporation that is required by the laws of this state to furnish equal service to the public gén'erally.
On the other hand, I do not believe that a mutual telephone company, organized not for profit, and serving only its stockholders, with the right to reject or accept any stockholder it pleases, can be required to procure a certificate from the public service commission before doing business in any locality, no matter whether a telephone company organized for profit is of is not furnishing adequate service to its subscribers in that locality.
The public service commission of Ohio, as its name indicates, is a commission created for the purpose of controlling and regulating the public utilities of this state.
Section 3 of the act creating that commission (Section 614-2, General Code) specifically enumerates the “person or persons, firm or firms, co-partnership or voluntary association, joint stock association, company or corporation, wherever organized or incorporated,” that come within the control and jurisdiction of the public service commission of Ohio. In this connection the statute defines a telephone company, and the following section of the same.act (Section 614-2a, General Code) specifically exempts from the terms of the statute utilities operated “not for profit;” so that the definition of “a telephone company” as given in Section 3 of the act creating the public service commission, must be read in connection with .the exceptions written in Section 4 of the same act, and so reading the two together, a telephone company, within the
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.