Toth v. Public Service Commission
Toth v. Public Service Commission
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
The majority of the court are of the opinion that in these cases there was no competent evidence adduced before the Public Service Commission that the appellants were engaged in business or operating as common carriers. Unless they were, the commission had no jurisdiction or authority to make the orders appealed from.
The evidence, which was very meager and consisted of nothing but the testimony of the complainant himself, went no further than to establish that each of the appellants owned an automobile in which he occasionally carried passengers from Mount Sterling to Masontown, and that he had been seen collecting money from passengers when they were alighting at Masontown, and had solicited passengers for the journey back to Mount Sterling.
The appellants were admittedly engaged in other business, at which they worked regularly, and so long as they did not hold themselves out as in the business of carrying passengers for hire, could at the request of other persons úse their automobiles to convey them to Masontown or elsewhere and accept pay for it, without subjecting themselves to the orders or authority of the Public Service Commission.
The orders of the Public Service Commission in the several cases are reversed.
Reference
- Cited By
- 5 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- Public Service Company Law — Common carriers — Automobiles —Operation as common carrier — Insufficient evidence. An order of the Public Service Commission, addressed to certain owners of automobiles, holding them to be common carriers, and commanding them to desist from the operation thereof until a certificate of public convenience be obtained, will be reversed, where there is no evidence to establish the fact that the owners of the automobiles have operated the same as common carriers, or in violation of the Public Service Company Law.