Dayton Power & Light Co. v. Public Utilities Commission’s Empirical Analysis
292 U.S. 290 · 1934
Citation profile
134 federal appellate · 14 district · 113 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 434 later decisions (74 by the Supreme Court) — most recently December 2001 · most notably Federal Power Commission v. Hope Natural Gas Co. (1944), Sartor v. Arkansas Natural Gas Corp. (1944)
134 federal appellate · 14 district · 113 state decisions — followed in 25 states
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on The Conqueror · State of Missouri Southwestern Bell Telephone Co v. Public Service Commission of Missouri · Los Angeles Gas Electric Corporation v. Railroad Commission of California · Sinclair Refining Co. v. Jenkins Petroleum Process Co. · Smith v. Illinois Bell Telephone Co.
Most-quoted passages
The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 434 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““At the threshold there is a controversy as to the scope of the problem before us for solution. The appellee argues that the only question for the commission was one as to the reasonableness of the new schedule in the very form proposed: Let the rates be excessive by ever so little, the schedule, it is said, was to be rejected altogether, and no other could he substituted. In opposition the appellant urges that this is too narrow a construction of the function and powers of the commission under the applicable statute : If the proposed schedule was too high and the earlier one too low, there was a duty to fix a rate between, and thereby make the compensation adequate. We accept this broader view in the absence of a ruling to the contrary by the courts of the state. It is borne out by the terms of the bond and by the requirements of the statute under which the bond was given: Such part of the new collections as shall be found to be unreasonable, that and no more is to be refunded to- the customers. It is borne out again by the findings and the order: The rate is to be returned to what it had been before the change, and the difference repaid. Finally it is borne out by the opinion of the state court, which considers upon the merits the objections enumerated by the appellant in its petition to review the order of the commission, and finds them all to be untenable.””
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“‘If they have any probative effect, it is that of expressions of opinion by men familiar with the gas business. . . . But plainly opinions thus offered, even if entitled to some weight, have no such conclusive force that there is error of law in refusing to follow them. This is true of opinion evidence generally, whether addressed to a judge or to a statutory board.’”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““ ‘It is necessary again, in this relation, to distinguish between the legislative and judicial functions.’ Los An-geles Gas & E. Corp. Case, supra, p. 314. Much that thé framers of the schedule are at liberty to do, this court in the exercise of its supervisory jurisdiction may not require them to do. For the legislative process, at least equally with the judicial, there is an indeterminate penumbra within which choice is uncontrolled.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.