Opinion
Nos. 37703, 37849, 37850 and 37851
Decided May 22, 1963.
Railroads — Automatic signal protection at highway grade crossings — Apportionment of cost of installation — Section 4907.47, Revised Code — Amended statute not applicable to pending proceedings.
APPEALS from the Public Utilities Commission.
The four above-captioned cases were consolidated for hearing in this court and it was stipulated by the parties that the causes involve requests or complaints filed with the Public Utilities Commission by municipalities seeking additional protection at railroad and highway grade crossings; that hearings were held before an attorney examiner of the commission prior to September 21, 1961, the effective date of the 1961 amendment of Section 4907.47, Revised Code; and that no final orders were entered on the journal of the commission until after that date.
In the proceedings before the commission, findings were made that the crossings were dangerous and that automatic protection should be installed, but no apportionment of costs of the installation of the protective devices between the railroads and the governmental agencies involved, as provided by amended Section 4907.47, Revised Code, was made by the commission. The appellant railroads were ordered to install the automatic protective devices at their sole cost and expense.
Appeals from those orders of the commission bring the causes to this court for review.
Mr. J.P. Canny, Mr. R.D. Lackland, Mr. A. Compton Russell, Mr. Wallace R. Steffen, Mr. Donald A. Brinkworth and Messrs. Wilson Rector, for appellants.
Mr. William B. Saxbe, attorney general, Mr. Andrew R. Sarisky and Mr. Jay C. Flowers, for appellee.
The appellants have accepted the findings of the commission that the subject crossings are dangerous and require installation of some type of automatic protective devices, but insist that it is incumbent on the commission to apportion the cost of installation of such devices between the railroads and the governmental agencies involved, as provided for in Section 4907.47, Revised Code, as amended effective September 21, 1961, although the complaints and requests were filed and hearings had before that date when the statute did not so provide, since the commission did not enter its findings and orders until after that date.
Section 1.20, Revised Code, provides that "when a statute is * * * amended, such * * *amendment does not affect pending actions, prosecutions or proceedings," and, when an "amendment relates to the remedy, it does not affect pending actions, prosecutions or proceedings, unless so expressed."
There is no expressed intention in the amending act (129 Ohio Laws, 313) to make it affect pending proceedings.
These four causes in which complaints had been filed and hearings held before September 21, 1961, were "pending proceedings" on that date, and the cost apportionment feature added to the statute as amended has no application to them.
The orders of the Public Utilities Commission are affirmed.
Orders affirmed.
TAFT, C.J., ZIMMERMAN, MATTHIAS, O'NEILL, GRIFFITH and HERBERT, JJ., concur.
GIBSON, J., not participating.