138 P.2d 817 | Okla. | 1943
Ed Pannell and Chickasha Cotton Oil Company, the co-owners and operators of two cotton gins at Sterling, Okla., appeal from an order of the Corporation Commission granting a license to the Farmers Co-Operative Gin Association of Sterling, Okla., to maintain and operate a cotton gin for the purpose of ginning seed cotton at Sterling, Okla.
It appears from the record that the association is a nonprofit organization, organized at Sterling, for the purpose of operating a cotton gin on a mutual nonprofit co-operative basis, pursuant to the statutes of Oklahoma, with about 120 members. The reason for desiring to establish and maintain their own gin is given in the application to the commission as follows: *653
"Farmers want to gin their own cotton. Lack of competitive market for cotton, cottonseed and feed products produced from cottonseed. Necessity of traveling great distances to reach competitive markets. Absence of modern equipment to receive cotton or properly gin it. Cotton producers not securing maximum price for seed and lint and want to gin and market their own cotton and seed and receive maximum price paid by surrounding market."
It is admitted that the plaintiffs in error own the two gins at Sterling. The evidence introduced by the association tended to show that because of the joint ownership of the two gins at Sterling by the plaintiffs in error there was an absence of competition and as a direct result of this the market price for cotton and cottonseed sold by the farmers and for the feed products from cottonseed bought by the farmers was out of line with the prices for such products in the surrounding country to the disadvantage of the farmers in the vicinity of Sterling. It would serve no useful purpose to quote the testimony of the witnesses introduced by association. It is sufficient to say that the testimony given by these witnesses, who lived in the vicinity that ordinarily would be served by gins at Sterling, tended to show: (1) Almost constantly a market price for the sale of cotton and cottonseed at Sterling lower than that of surrounding points; (2) some slight difference in charges for hauling to compress; and (3) a higher price to the farmers for the purchase of cottonseed meal. The testimony of these witnesses was that they and others habitually hauled their cotton to other markets in order to obtain better prices or better deals in the trade of cottonseed for cotton meal and that it was an added inconvenience to do this. We observe that the evidence introduced by the plaintiffs in error strongly contradicted the evidence of the association in every particular, and the plaintiffs in error urge throughout their brief that their testimony completely refutes the testimony of the association.
The first contention urged by plaintiffs in error is that the commission erred in failing to sustain their demurrer to the evidence of the association and in refusing to sustain their motion to deny the application for the license at the close of all of the evidence "for the reason that the evidence fails to show that additional ginning facilities, conveniences, and services are needed at Sterling, Okla., to serve the public or that an additional gin there is a needed utility."
Plaintiffs in error preface their argument on this point by calling our attention to article 9, sec. 20, Constitution of Oklahoma, as amended by Senate Bill 61, sec. 1, Session Laws 1941. Prior to the enactment of Senate Bill 61, Session Laws 1941, this court was required, on appeal, to regard the action of the Corporation Commission appealed from as prima facie just, reasonable, and correct whereas by the provisions of Senate Bill 6. 1, sec. 1, supra, this court is now obliged on appeals not involving constitutional issues to determine ". . . whether the findings and conclusions of the commission are sustained by the law and substantial evidence. . ." Plaintiffs in error contend that by reason of this change in our fundamental law the order of the commission granting the association a license to establish this gin reaches here for review without any mandatory presumption with respect to its justness or correctness, and that it is necessary for this court to examine the record to ascertain whether the order is sustained by substantial evidence. Following this, plaintiffs in error indulge in an extended summary and review and comparison of the evidence introduced by the respective parties below. It is our opinion, however, that the purport of this lengthy review of the record is to induce a weighing of the evidence to see whether the order of the commission is in accord with the weight of evidence, and this is a thing apart from determining whether the order is sustained by substantial evidence.
Both parties agree that substantial evidence means something more than a "scintilla of evidence" and means evidence *654
that possesses something of substance and of relevant consequence and such that carries with it fitness to induce conviction. Both parties agree in citing cases that say that substantial evidence is such evidence that reasonable men may fairly differ whether it establishes a case. The cases cited by plaintiffs in error, N.L.R.B. v. Abell,
It is our opinion that the determination of whether there is substantial evidence to establish or support an order made by the commission does not require that the evidence introduced by all of the parties be weighed, but only that that evidence in the record tending to support the order entered be considered to determine whether it meets the test stated above. In other words, we are to determine whether the evidence introduced by the association implies such clarity as proof that it did induce the conviction that the application should be granted, or furnished a substantial basis of fact from which the issue tendered could be reasonably resolved.
Viewed in this light, we are of the opinion that the evidence in the record reaches the state that requires it to be considered substantial evidence supporting the order made by the commission.
The second contention urged by plaintiffs in error is that the evidence introduced by the association wholly failed to place association within the rule announced in Southwestern Cotton Oil Co. v. Farmers Union Co-Operative Gin,
The third contention made is that the rule laid down in the Pauls Valley Case should be overruled. The argument in support of this contention is based upon a citation of 17 O. S. 1941 §§ 46 and 152, and article 9, §§ 18 and 19 of the Constitution of Oklahoma, giving the commission the power and authority to establish rules and regulations and to exercise the power to punish as for contempt for violations of such rules and regulations. Vogel v. Corporation Commission,
The judgment of the trial court is affirmed.
CORN, C. J., GIBSON, V. C. J., and RILEY, WELCH, HURST, and ARNOLD, JJ., concur. OSBORN and DAVISON, JJ., absent. *656