MANATEE COUNTY, APPELLANT,
v.
JOHN R. MARKS, ETC., ET AL., APPELLEES

Fla. | 1987-04-09
No. 68657
MCDONALD, C.J., and OVERTON, SHAW and BARKETT, JJ., concur. .
504 So. 2d 763 Florida Supreme Court (1987) Positive Treatment
Cited by 6 cases

AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.


Holding

The court held that the Public Service Commission's denial of Manatee County's request to change a telephone service exchange boundary was supported by competent, substantial evidence and was not arbitrary.


Headnotes

[1] A state supreme court has jurisdiction over appeals of decisions by the Public Service Commission relating to telephone utility service.

[2] The Public Service Commission's findings regarding telephone service adequacy will be affirmed if supported by competent, substantial evidence.

Previewing 2 of 5 headnotes on this case. FLexlaw’s editorially structured points of law — every proposition, pinpointed — are reserved for members.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Facts & Procedural History

Manatee County requested the Public Service Commission to change a telephone service exchange boundary, arguing the current boundary caused various di…

The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

© FLexlaw, Inc. — AI-generated enrichments are proprietary. All rights reserved.


Opinion of the Court
EHRLICH, Justice.

EHRLICH, Justice.

This is an appeal of a decision of the Florida Public Service Commission denying the request of Manatee County for an order directing that the boundary line between two telephone service exchange areas operated by General Telephone Company be changed. Manatee County sought to have a certain area within Manatee County provided telephone service through an exchange located in Manatee County rather than through an exchange located in Sarasota County which General Telephone is now doing and plans to do in the future. Because the commission’s order relates to the service provided by a telephone utility, this Court has jurisdiction. Art. V, § 3(b)(2), Fla. Const. Manatee County initiated this proceeding before the Public Service Commission by filing a request that the commission direct General Telephone Company to change the boundary line between two telephone service exchange areas. Manatee’s request pertained to a four-square-mile area in Manatee County contiguous to Sarasota County. The area is largely uninhabited now but is expected to undergo substantial development in the future. General Telephone Company intends to provide telephone service to this area through its Sarasota Northside exchange, which it does to other areas of Manatee County south of Bradenton, and near the east-west lateral boundary between the two counties. Manatee County sought to have this newly developing area of its territory served instead through the telephone company’s Bradenton exchange in Manatee County.

The pleadings filed and the evidence and argument presented to the Public Service Commission at the formal hearing show Manatee County’s position to be as follows: that the provision of telephone service to the area in question through the Sarasota Northside exchange will (1) cause people confusion as to their county of residence; (2) undermine residents’ sense of identity with Manatee County; (3) hinder the provision of services to the area by the county; (4) cause a loss of business to merchants in Manatee County thus retarding economic development; (5) penalize telephone customers residing in Manatee County but served from Sarasota County; and (6) cause a loss of tax revenues to Manatee County.

The commission found that no residents or property owners in the area had complained about the telephone service; that residents of adjacent subdivisions in Manatee served from Sarasota Northside were satisfied with the service; that confusion as to county of residence was due in part to postal designations and had been largely corrected; that lack of knowledge of the location of the county boundary could be corrected by better public information and education; that the routing of south Manatee emergency assistance calls through the Sarasota Northside exchange before they are put through to the emergency assistance agency in Manatee County did not cause a significant delay and that the system would soon be changed so as to cause no delay; that the phenomenon of residents of one county patronizing businesses in another county was not due to telephone exchange numbers and that merchants were free to advertise in the yellow-pages directories of either Bradenton or Sarasota or both; that there was now no problem of payment of property taxes in the wrong county; and that the erroneous imposition of telephone bill surcharges on Manatee residents for fees imposed by Sarasota County had been corrected. The commission found that there were no deficiencies in quality of actual telephone service that were in any way attributable to the location of the exchange boundary. The commission also found that the requested change would require a substantial expenditure that would have to be recovered from rate-payers. In short, the commission did not find that the concerns of Manatee County are a function of telephone exchanges.

The commission referred in its order to section 364.14(2), Florida Statutes (1985), which provides:

Whenever the commission finds that the rules, regulations, or practices of any telephone company are unjust or unreasonable, or that the equipment, facilities, or service of any telephone company are inadequate, inefficient, improper, or insufficient, the commission shall determine the just, reasonable, proper, adequate, and efficient rules, regulations, practices, equipment, facilities, and service to be thereafter installed, observed, and used and shall fix the same by order or rule as hereinafter provided.

The commission expressly found that no inadequacy, inefficiency, impropriety, or insufficiency had been shown.

On review of action of the Public Service Commission, this Court does not re-evaluate or reweigh the evidence, but only determines whether the commission’s decision is supported by competent, sub stantial evidence. Citizens of Florida v. Public Service Commission, 435 So. 2d 784 (Fla.1983); General Telephone Co. v. Carter, 115 So. 2d 554 (Fla.1959); Fogarty Bros. Transfer, Inc. v. Boyd, 109 So. 2d 883 (Fla.1959). Conflicts in the evidence and varying interpretations thereof are for the commission to resolve. Florida Retail Federation, Inc. v. Mayo, 331 So. 2d 308, 311 (Fla.1976). The burden is on the party seeking review here to demonstrate that the commission’s determination is arbitrary or unsupported by evidence. Id. at 311.

We are unable to conclude that the commission’s decision in this proceeding was arbitrary or unsupported by evidence.

Manatee County says that the commission must consider more than simply the adequacy of the service. The county relies on section 364.10, Florida Statutes (1985), which provides: “No telephone company shall make or give any undue or unreasonable preference or advantage to any person or locality or subject any particular person or locality to any undue or unreasonable prejudice or disadvantage in any respect whatsoever.” Implicit in the commission’s order, however, is a determination that no action or policy of the telephone company has caused Manatee County’s territory any “undue or unreasonable prejudice or disadvantage.”

Because we conclude that the commission’s findings are supported by competent, substantial evidence and that its decision was not arbitrary or erroneous, we affirm the order of the Public Service Commission.

It is so ordered.

MCDONALD, C.J., and OVERTON, SHAW and BARKETT, JJ., concur. .


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • Citizens OF the State OF Fla. v. Wilson, 568 So. 2d 1267 (Fla. 1990)
    …ether the PSC’s action comports with the essential requirements of law and is supported by substantial competent evidence.” Pan Am. World Airways, Inc. v. Florida Pub. Service Comm’n, 427 So. 2d 716, 717 (Fla.1983). See also Manatee County v. Marks, 504 So. 2d 763 (Fla.1987); Florida Power Corp. v. Public Serv. Comm’n, 487 So. 2d 1061 (Fla.1986); Citizens v. Public Serv. Comm’n, 464 So. 2d 1194 (Fla.1985); Florida Tel. Corp. v. Mayo, 350 So. 2d 775 (Fla.1977). An agency’s interpretation of its own rules is en…
  • Citizens OF the State OF Fla. v. Wilson, 569 So. 2d 1268 (Fla. 1990)
    …hat according to his study interruptible customers would receive slight fuel-savings benefits in 1991, but this was not projected to occur until either July or August, which was after the requested extension had expired. In Manatee County v. Marks, 504 So. 2d 763, 764-65 (Fla.1987), this Court stated: On review of action of the Public Service Commission, this Court does not reevaluate or reweigh the evidence, but only determines whether the commission’s decision is supported by competent, substantial eviden…
  • Int'l Telecharge, Inc. v. Wilson, 573 So. 2d 816 (Fla. 1991)
    …ictions in Order No. 22243. We find no merit in ITI’s equal protection or 0 + and 0— traffic arguments. The burden on a party seeking review of a PSC order is to demonstrate that the commission’s determination was arbitrary. Manatee County v. Marks, 504 So. 2d 763 (Fla.1987). The PSC’s decision to cap the rate at ATT-C rates was reasonable in light of the PSC’s role in ensuring that the public interest is protected. Competition in the telephone industry is intended to benefit the public, and is not intended t…

Authorities Cited

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw