82 S.W.2d 1065 | Tex. App. | 1935
This appeal is prosecuted from an order of the court dissolving a temporary injunction. Appellant, B. B. Britton, instituted this suit in the district court against the Railroad Commission of Texas, C. V. Terrell, Lon A. Smith, and Ernest O. Thompson, the individual members thereof, and Will Adams, sheriff of Limestone county, to restrain said defendants, and each of them, from interfering with or molesting appellant, or any of his agents or employees, in operating his motortrucks over the highways of the state of Texas. Appellant alleged, in substance, that he, in pursuance of the provisions of article 911b, Vernon's Ann.Civ.St., had theretofore applied to said Railroad Commission for a permit to operate as a contract motor carrier and to haul cotton and general merchandise as such over the public highways in the north, east, and central sections of the state; that the commission heard said application and found as a fact that the operation proposed by him would impair the efficient public service of the authorized common carrier or common carriers then adequately serving the same territory, and based on said finding, refused to grant him a permit to operate as such carrier. Appellant, as sole ground for the restraint sought, assailed the constitutionality of section 6 of said article 911b, which section requires all motor carriers desiring to operate as contract carriers over the highways of this state to procure a permit to do so from the commission. The court granted a temporary injunction imposing such restraint. The Railroad Commission and the individual members thereof filed a motion to dissolve said injunction based on exceptions to appellant's petition. The court dissolved the injunction, but suspended the order dissolving the same during the pendency of this appeal. Appellant presents said order to this court for review.
Said section, so far as material to appellant's contention, reads as follows:
"(a) No motor carrier * * * that may hereafter desire to engage in the business of a contract carrier shall so operate until it shall have received a permit from the Commission to engage in such business. * * *
"(c) No application for permit shall be granted by the Commission until after a hearing nor shall any such permit be granted if the Commission shall be of the opinion that the proposed operation of any such contract carrier will impair the efficient public service of any authorized common carrier or common carriers then adequately serving the same territory."
The commission, in its order refusing appellant's application, recited, in substance, that after consideration of the situation it found as a fact that the operation proposed by appellant would impair the efficient public service of the authorized common carrier or common carriers then adequately serving the same territory. Appellant, in his argument under said proposition, charges that the effect of the statutory provisions above quoted is to delegate to the commission power to find the existence of facts, without providing any rule to guide it in its action thereon except its own opinion.
The rule is well established in this state that certain powers vested in the Legislature may be delegated to boards, commissions, or other agencies. The ordinary application of this rule is the delegation to such agencies of powers which the Legislature itself cannot practically and efficiently exercise. 9 Tex.Jur., p. 496, § 70; Trimmier v. Carlton,
The order of the trial court dissolving the temporary injunction theretofore granted is affirmed. *1067