Hugo Black

“ My belief is that under the circumstances here the only way even partially to carry out the purpose of Congress to afford consumer relief is by distributing this fund to the consumers. This itself will impose a tedious, onerous, and perhaps expensive burden on the court and the consumers. Such a burden, however, is one of the prices to be paid for the practice of judicial suspension of rate orders. ”

“ Under such circumstances, where rates were fixed by law or contract on the basis of the high wholesale rate, neither statutes nor equitable principles require the Court of Appeals to seek standards of reasonableness different from those under which gas merchants voluntarily had already sold their product to retailers and consumers. All regulatory statutes permit utilities to complain of unreasonable rates, and the failure of these utilities to prosecute claims for excess rates until this windfall was in sight should bar them from making retroactive claims now. ”

“ Neither the procedure I suggest nor that adopted by the Court can achieve with scientific accuracy the result that would have followed had the court not suspended the rate reduction order. But under the Court's plan to require the Court of Appeals to reconstruct hypothetical rate situations in several states a major part of the funds might be dissipated in a costly but vain search for an unattainable goal. [6] Consumers at least can get a substantial part of the funds under the procedure I suggest. ”