Opinion
No. 21116
Decided February 13, 1929.
Public Utilities Commission — Determining telephone rates — Excess of annual net income over six per cent. of present property value — Sections 614-23 and 614-49, General Code — Appropriation not limited to repairs and replacements occasioned by extraordinary contingencies.
ERROR to the Public Utilities Commission.
Mr. Frank C. Dunbar and Mr. Joseph T. Micklethwait, for plaintiff in error.
Mr. Edward C. Turner, attorney general, and Mr. A.M. Calland, for defendant in error.
Mr. D.W. Gustin, city solicitor, and Mr. Henry Bannon, for city of Portsmouth.
In our opinion, the order of the Public Utilities Commission should be affirmed except in so far as the same provides for the appropriation of the excess of the annual net income above 6 per cent. of the present value of the property to be expended only in the making of repairs and replacements which are occasioned by extraordinary contingencies. In our judgment, said sum in excess of 6 per cent. of the present value of the property should be employed as directed by Sections 614-23 and 614-49, General Code, to-wit, to be employed for surplus, depreciations, and contingencies, and to provide the amount required over and above the cost and expense of maintenance to keep the property of the public utility in a state of efficiency corresponding to the progress of the art or industry.
In all other respects, the order of the commission should be affirmed, and, as so modified, such order is so affirmed.
Order modified and affirmed.
MARSHALL, C.J., KINKADE, DAY and ALLEN, JJ., concur.