Page:Department of Public Utilities v. Arkansas Louisiana Gas Co.pdf/1




 * 1) INTERSTATE COMMERCE—TRANSPORTATION OF GAS THROUGH PIPE LINES—TAPS FOR LOCAL CUSTOMERS.—An order issued by the Department of Public Utilities requiring appellee to file all schedules of rates was a valid order, and was not complied with when appellee failed to file schedule of rates to consumers served along its line who desired gas for industrial purposes; and the fact that the gas entered appellee's pipe line in Louisiana to be transported into and sold in Arkansas did not alter the situation nor exempt it from state control.
 * 2) INTERSTATE COMMERCE—ORIGINAL PACKAGE.—The original package of gas transported from one state to another is broken when it is turned into a city distribution plant, and this class of commerce is not to be distinguished from the sales made from its pipe lines to selected customers.
 * 3) INTERSTATE COMMERCE.—The business of supplying on demand local consumers with gas is a local business, even though the gas be brought from another state and drawn for distribution directly from mains which might also be used for interstate purposes.

Appeal from Pulaski Circuit Court, Second Division; Richard M. Mann, Judge; reversed.

Thomas Fitzhugh, for appellants.

H. C. Walker, Jr., and Moore, Gray, Burrow & Chowning, for appellee.

P. A. Lasley, amicus curiae.

GRIFFIN SMITH, C.J. General Order No. 13 was issued by appellant on April 13, 1935. It directed public utility companies doing business. within the state, as defined in § 1 of act 324 of 1935, to file with the Department of Public Utilities all schedules of rates in effect as of April 2, 1935. In response to this order, appellee, a Delaware corporation doing business in Arkansas, filed a partial schedule. From this report there was omitted the schedule of rates charged for certain classes of service. Included in the class of service for which no schedule was filed were about forty customers who purchased large quantities of gas for industrial purposes, and five classified as customers buying at wholesale and engaged in retail distribution to individual customers.