21 Pa. Commw. 395 | Pa. Commw. Ct. | 1975
Opinion by
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, for itself and on behalf of its citizens and residents of the State, has filed its complaint in equity against Duquesne Light Company seeking an injunction restraining the defendant from collecting payment for electric service to the Commonwealth or other customers in excess of a rate set forth in a Supplement No. 14 allowed by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (Commission) and effective August 21, 1974.
The plaintiff filed a motion for preliminary injunction which, after hearing, we denied.
The defendant has now filed preliminary objections which, after argument, are before us for disposition. The objections consist of a petition raising a question of jurisdiction, a motion to dismiss for failure to exhaust a statutory remedy, a demurrer, a petition raising the question of the nonjoinder of an indispensible party, and a petition questioning the plaintiff’s capacity to sue on behalf of its citizens and residents. We have concluded that this Court has no jurisdiction in equity to review the Commission’s action and we therefore sustain the preliminary objections first mentioned.
We see no reason to enlarge on the following from Judge Wilkinson’s opinion in Commonwealth v. Metropolitan Edison Company, supra:
“The statutory law is about as clear as the English language could make it:
‘No injunction shall issue modifying, suspending, staying, or annulling any order of the commission, or of a commissioner, except in a proceeding questioning the jurisdiction of the commission, and then only after cause shown upon a hearing.’ Section 1111 of the Public Utility Law, Act of May 28, 1937, P.L. 1053, as amended, 66 P.S. §1441 (Supp. 1974-1975).
“This provision applies to the original jurisdiction of this Court as set forth in Judge Crumlish’s recent opinion in Rutledge Construction Co. v. Public Utility Commission, 9 Pa. Commonwealth' Ct. 375, 305 A.2d 788 (1973). In that instance, it was the Public Utility Commission properly invoking the provisions of the statute.
“Decisional law is equally clear:
‘Although we still possess the right of judicial scrutiny over the acts of the PUC, no principle has become more firmly established in Pennsylvania law than that the courts will not originally adjudicate matters within the jurisdiction of the PUC. Initial jurisdiction in matters concerning the relationship between public utilities and the public is in the PUC — not in the courts. It has been so held involving rates, service, rules of service, extension, and expansion, hazard to public safety due to use of utility facilities, installation of utility facilities, location of utility facilities, obtaining, alerting, dissolving, abandoning, selling or trans*399 ferring any right, power, privilege, service, franchise or property and rights to serve particular territory.’ Lansdale Borough v. Philadelphia Electric Company, 403 Pa. 647, 650-51, 170 A.2d 565, 566-67 (1961) (footnotes omitted).
“With the recent opinion of Justice Pomeroy in Akron Borough v. Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, 453 Pa. 554, 310 A.2d 271 (1973), our Supreme Court has taken a narrow view of the language of Section 1111, equating its limited authority to grant injunctions in a proceeding questioning the jurisdiction of the Commission to the power to issue a writ of prohibition.
“Finally, appellant asserts the authority of the Attorney General under the provisions of Section 904 of the Public Utility Law, 66 P.S. §1344:
“ ‘Enforcement proceedings by Attorney General:
“ ‘The Attorney General, in addition to the exercise of the powers and duties now conferred upon him by law, shall also, upon request of the commission, or upon his own motion, proceed in the name of the Commonwealth, by mandamus, injunction, or quo warranto, or other appropriate remedy at law or in equity, to restrain violations of the provisions of this act, or of the regulations or orders of the commission, or the judgments, orders, or decrees of any court, or to enforce obedience thereto.’
“Appellant does not cite a case, nor have we found one, that holds this Section to be a vehicle to challenge the Commission’s authority in a tariff-making process. To so interpret it would put it in direct conflict with Section 1111.” Commonwealth v. Metropolitan Edison Company, 18 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. at 610, 11, 336 A.2d at 919-20.
In short, the Legislature has decided that the judiciary should not interfere by injunction with orders of the Com
Order
And Now, this 22nd day of October, 1975, the prayer of the defendant’s preliminary objection in the nature of a petition raising this Court’s jurisdiction in equity is granted and the complaint herein is dismissed.
. In Commonwealth v. Metropolitan Edison Company, supra, the Commonwealth filed a petition to suspend the unsuspended Supplement, the prayer of which the Commission denied. The Commonwealth’s petition to file an interlocutory appeal from the Commission’s order to this Court at No. 1661 C.D. 1974, was denied as having been untimely filed.