Opinion
Nos. 77-653 and 77-655
Decided March 22, 1978.
Public Utilities Commission — Motor transportation companies — Commercial zone — Petition to enlarge denied, when — Reciprocal rights denied, when.
APPEALS from the Public Utilities Commission.
The Public Utilities Commission (commission), by order of May 23, 1961, enlarged the Columbus Commercial Zone to include all territory within Franklin County. Appellants, Reynoldsburg Trucking, Inc., and T.C. Spires, Inc., are holders of intrastate irregular certificates of public convenience and necessity which authorize certain motor transportation service from and to all points in Fairfield County. In order to have been granted these certificates, appellants had previously established that the public convenience and necessity required their service in Fairfield County.
In May 1974, the Columbus City Council annexed by ordinance a portion of Fairfield County into the city of Columbus.
On July 23, 1974, appellant T.C. Spires, presumably pursuant to its belief that the Columbus Commercial Zone had been enlarged to include the annexed portion of Fairfield County, issued a tariff supplement which included rates for movements from and to the Columbus Commercial Zone. By entry of April 21, 1975, the commission entered an investigation of those tariffs.
On May 16, 1975, appellants filed a petition for the enlargement (or clarification) of the commercial zone. By entry of May 27, 1975, the commission held the Spires investigation in abeyance pending the resolution of the petition of appellants.
A hearing on the petition was held on July 21, 1975. The attorney examiner's report, filed November 2, 1976, rejected the contention that the annexed portion of Fairfield County was included in the commercial zone and concluded further that the commercial zone should not be so enlarged.
On February 16, 1977, the commission issued its opinion and order affirming the attorney examiner's report and denying the petition. In March 1977, appellants filed applications for rehearing which were denied by the commission on April 13, 1977.
On June 10, 1977, appellants filed notices of appeal, and upon the allowance of the commission's motion to consolidate the two appeals, the cause is now before this court as a matter of right.
Messrs. Sanborn, Brandon Duvall and Mr. James Duvall, for appellant Reynoldsburg Trucking, Inc.
Mr. Lewis S. Witherspoon, for appellant T.C. Spires, Inc.
Mr. William J. Brown, attorney general, Mr. Marvin I. Resnick, Mr. John W. Bentine and Mr. John W. Rudduck, for appellee.
Appellants assert, in effect, that because a portion of Fairfield County was annexed into the city of Columbus, the Columbus Commercial Zone should have been enlarged to include the added territory, and that therefore appellants' certificate authority was extended by operation of law throughout the entire commercial zone without a showing of public convenience and necessity.
Appellants cite Beiter Line, Inc., v. Pub. Util. Comm. (1956), 165 Ohio St. 1, as authority for the above proposition. However, such heavy reliance on Beiter Line and similar cases is unfounded, for two reasons:
First, this court in Beiter Line stated that the commission " is not obligated * * * to make a specific finding that there is public convenience and necessity as to extended motor carrier service * * *."
In Beiter Line, this court stated only that repeated findings of public convenience and necessity were not required; the concept was not made irrelevant. Quite clearly this court stated, at page 7, that convenience and necessity "is the very object of such zone extension."
Second, there is an important factual distinction between the instant cause and the cases cited by appellants. In the latter the carriers were municipally based, and therefore uniformity of service between the municipality and its commercial zone was desirable. However, in the instant case, appellants' base point is Fairfield County, not the city of Columbus, and thus the policy arguments for uniformity are not applicable.
Alternatively, appellants assert that reciprocal rights to serve a commercial zone inure to a common carrier serving a municipality.
In Highway, Inc., v. Pub. Util. Comm. (1959), 169 Ohio St. 195, this court stated:
" It is not error for the * * * [commission] to extend reciprocal privileges to all motor carriers holding authority * * * within the municipality about which a zone is being created." (Emphasis added.)
The above case clearly does not require the commission to grant reciprocal rights. A commission finding will not be disturbed unless it is manifestly against the weight of the evidence and so clearly unsupported by the record as to show misapprehension, mistake, or willful disregard of duty. Ford Motor Co. v. Pub. Util. Comm. (1977), 52 Ohio St.2d 142, 152.
Appellants have not met this burden. Indeed, their claims of unfairness are not supported by specific evidence.
The order of the commission is neither unreasonable nor unlawful and is therefore affirmed.
Order affirmed.
O'NEILL, C.J., HERBERT, CELEBREZZE, W. BROWN, P. BROWN, SWEENEY and LOCHER, JJ., concur.