Southern Pacific Co. v. Railroad Commission

THE COURT. With the exception that with respect to one order that is involved herein, the subject of rates proposed to be charged for transportation of freight relates particularly to canned goods, and in a second order, that soap and other allied products represent the commodities that are affected by the several proposed rates,—no important factual differences are discernible when compared with the underlying facts that are narrated in the proceeding entitled Southern Pac. Co. v. Railroad Com., No. 15980 (ante, p. 89 [87 Pac. (2d) 1055]), wherein a decision by this court has this day been filed. In addition thereto, each of the several contentions of the respective parties that are therein decided by this court is likewise applicable in the instant matter. No useful purpose would be served herein by a repetition thereof. Suffice it to say that appositely each of the several rulings that was made in the proceeding to which reference just has been had is adopted as a ruling in the proceeding now under consideration.

Particularly with reference to the point, in substance, that not only was there no evidence to support the so-called “finding” to the effect “that the rates under suspension . . . have not been shown to be justified ... ”, the record herein [127]not only sustains the petitioner in that regard, but goes further, in that it unmistakably appears that such finding is contrary to the evidence. In its brief herein, the respondent commission initially undertakes to show why, in rendering its decision in the proceeding then before it for consideration, the evidence that had been introduced by the petitioner at the hearing that took place before the respondent commission was disregarded. Nowhere in its ruling, which includes a commingling of argument, findings of fact and conclusions of law, did the respondent commission ever refer to either of the several postulates which it now advances as its reasons for refusing to give either full or any credence to such evidence. Indeed, other than the bare conclusion that the proposed rates were “not justified’', the “findings” by the respondent commission contain no intimation but that the evidence that was received at the hearing on behalf of the petitioner did not deserve the weight to which on its face it was properly entitled. On the other hand, in its reply brief, the petitioner has effectively answered the asserted reasons for discrediting such evidence, which reasons, for the first time, are suggested by the respondent commission in its brief herein. But assuming, without conceding, that none of the reasons that are now' urged as sufficient for the rejection of such evidence is sound, the respondent commission urges the point that “even though there be no conflict, the appraisal of the evidence presents a question of fact for the commission’s determination; it does not raise a question of law for the determination of the courts”.