Opinion
No. 32362
Decided April 25, 1951.
Public Utilities Commission — Order relating to safety of railroad employees — Written opinion to be filed — Section 614-46a, General Code — Failure to file, error — Appeal — Cause remanded for compliance with statute.
APPEAL from the Public Utilities Commission.
This proceeding originated before the Public Utilities Commission by the filing of a complaint as to an alleged unsafe practice existing in the Stanley yard of The New York Central Railroad Company at Toledo. The complaint relates to the "humping" of cars in the Stanley yard onto a track at a time when a train crew is engaged in making up a train on that track. It is claimed that such practice creates a hazard which the commission should correct under authority of Section 614-3, General Code, giving the commission power to promulgate and enforce all orders relating to the safety of railroad employees.
The case was heard before the commission's attorney examiner, who prepared a report to the commission containing detailed findings of fact, including a finding that "it would be arbitrary and unreasonable for the commission to require the respondent railroad to spike the tracks in yard K of Stanley yard on the basis of the complaint and evidence presented by complainant herein." The examiner recommended that the complaint be dismissed.
Notwithstanding the attorney examiner's findings and recommendation, the commission promulgated an order that the respondent railroad desist from humping cars on tracks in the Stanley yard when switching crews are required to make movements of cars from the head end of such tracks. The commission entered such order without filing a written opinion setting forth the reasons prompting the decision arrived at, together with a resume of the facts upon which its decision was based, as required by Section 614-46 a, General Code.
The cause is in this court on appeal from the order of the commission.
Mr. Robert R. Pierce and Mr. Wesley A. Wilkinson, for appellant.
Mr. Herbert S. Duffy and Mr. C. William O'Neill, attorneys general, and Mr. Kenneth B. Johnston, for appellee.
The Public Utilities Commission was in error in that it failed to comply with the requirements of Section 614-46 a, General Code, that "it shall be the duty of the commission to file with the records thereof, written opinions setting forth the reasons prompting the decisions arrived at by the commission, together with a resume from the record of the facts upon which such decisions are based."
The cause is therefore remanded to the Public Utilities Commission for a full compliance with the above-quoted provisions of the statute.
Cause remanded.
ZIMMERMAN, STEWART, MIDDLETON, TAFT, MATTHIAS and HART, JJ., concur.
WEYGANDT, C.J., not participating.