Central Kentucky Nat. Gas Co. v. Railroad Comm’n, 290 U.S. 264 (1933)
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Central Kentucky Natural Gas Co. v.
Railroad Commission of Kentucky
No. 11
Argued November 7, 1933
Decided December 4, 1933
290 U.S. 264
APPEAL FROM THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF KENTUCKY
Syllabus
1. Where a contract between a public utility and a city provides that the utility shall set its own rates in the first instance, subject to the right of the city, if it deems them excessive, to take proceedings to have just and reasonable rates fixed by a state commission in accordance with the statutes of the state, rates so found and prescribed by the commission are not to be deemed rates fixed by the contract, or by an arbitration of their dispute, but are rates fixed by the state, the enforcement of which, if confiscatory, is subject to be restrained by a federal court as an infraction of the Fourteenth Amendment. P. 269.
2. District Courts of the United States may set aside a confiscatory rate prescribed by state authority because forbidden by the Fourteenth Amendment, but they are without authority to prescribe rates, both because that is a function reserved to the state and because it is not one within the judicial power conferred upon them by the Constitution. P. 271.
3. The power to attach conditions to decrees of federal courts enjoining state rates should be cautiously exercised. P. 272.
4. The District Court found a state rate on gas confiscatory, but declined to restrain its enforcement unless the complaining utility would accept another rate, somewhat higher, found reasonable by the court but protested by the utility, and would furthermore consent that collections in excess of the latter rate, which had been impounded by the court and by state authorities during the controversy, should be distributed in due proportions to the utility’s patrons. Held, an improper exercise of the power to affix conditions. Pp. 270-273.
5. Where the findings of the District Court as to the adequacy of a rate prescribed by a state commission all related to a time long antedating the decree, without regard to later increases in the expenses of the public utility, shown by the record, or profound economic changes affecting values, costs, etc., of which judicial notice may be taken, this Court, though satisfied that the weight of the evidence sustains the conclusion that the rate was unreasonable at the time referred to, directs that the decree of injunction to be entered shall be expressly without prejudice to the right of the commission to fix a just and reasonable rate, and that it shall not adjudge the validity of the rate enjoined insofar as affected by such changed conditions. P. 275.
60 F.2d 137 reversed.
Appeal from a decree of the District Court (three judges) which denied a permanent injunction in a suit to restrain the enforcement of a rate on gas, and which directed that collections impounded during the suit in excess of a rate found reasonable by the District Court should be returned to the consumers who paid them.