Charles Evans Hughes

“ In that way the properties allocated to Texas were valued at $40,256,862.39, and the net revenue which would be available at the Commission's rate was estimated to be, for the last two years of the accounting period, nearly 7 per cent. Appellant complains of this appraisal upon the ground that it excluded the production properties located in Texas which appellant claimed had an actual cost of $5,191,539,42 as of March 31, 1934, and that the State substituted therefor an arbitrary and inadequate annual allowance on the basis of the field price for the volume of gas produced. ”

“ Appellant, a Texas corporation, operates about 4,000 miles of pipe lines located in Texas and Oklahoma through which it transports natural gas to the 'city gates' of about 300 cities and towns in those States and sells and delivers the gas in wholesale quantities to distributing companies. ”

“ Nor, in view of the circumstances in the instant case, can it be said that the Commission was undertaking to regulate sales and deliveries of gas in interstate commerce. Compare Missouri ex rel. Barrett v. Kansas Natural Gas Co., 265 U.S. 298, 44 S.Ct. 544, 68 L.Ed. 1027; People's Natural Gas Co. v. Public Service Commission, 270 U.S. 550, 46 S.Ct. ”

“ East Ohio Gas Co. v. Tax Commission, 283 U.S. 465, 51 S.Ct. 499, 75 L.Ed. 1171; State Tax Commission v. Interstate Natural Gas Co., 284 U.S. 41, 52 S.Ct. 62, 76 L.Ed. 156; State Corporation Commission v. Wichita Gas Co., 290 U.S. 561, 54 S.Ct. 321, 78 L.Ed. 500. The distributing companies in Texas, with the exception of those at Waxahachie and Gainesville (the amount of deliveries there being negligible in comparison with appellant's total gas business) , are appellant's affiliates. The Lone Star Gas Corporation, organized in Delaware, holds more than 99 per cent. ”

“ There the jury's verdict sustained the rate but that fact does not alter the nature of the issue sumi tted.
Under the state practice the issues of fact were determined in the trial court and on the appeal the Court of Civil Appeals had no authority to make findings of fact. 'Where the evidence is without conflict, it may render judgment. But where there is any conflict in the evidence on a material issue, it has no authority to substitute its findings of fact for those of the trial court.' Post v. State, 106 Tex. 500, 501, 171 S.W. 707, 708; United Gas Public Service Company v. Texas, supra. ”

“ The court viewed the appeal as presenting two main divisions, (1) certain constitutional objections to the rate order, and (2) the legal sufficiency of the evidence to show that the order was confiscatory or unreasonable and unjust. ”