# Brandon v. Arkansas Public Service Commission

> Court of Appeals of Arkansas · June 23, 1999 · 67 Ark. App. 140

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9770342

## Case

- **Full name:** Robert BRANDON and Carl Brooks v. ARKANSAS PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION
- **Court:** Court of Appeals of Arkansas
- **Decided:** June 23, 1999
- **Citations:** 67 Ark. App. 140; 992 S.W.2d 834; 1999 Ark. App. LEXIS 444
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Concurrence by Griffen
- **Judges:** Judith Rogers
- **Cited by:** 22 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9770342

## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction)

- holding that the PSC had the authority to hear 15 a class action involving allegations of violating the “least-cost gas purchasing statute,” although such a power is not specifically enumerated in section 23-3-119, because such a claim would necessarily affect numerous ratepay…
- holding that the PSC had the authority to hear a class action involving allegations of violating the “least-cost gas purchasing statute,” although such a power is not specifically enumerated in § 23-3-119, because such a claim would necessarily affect numerous ratepayers, and …

## Opinion text

Wendell L. Griffen, Judge, concurring. I would have been happy to reverse the Public Service Commission’s decision on appellant’s second point. However, I am forced to conclude, as Judge Rogers has written in the majority opinion, that the Arkansas General Assembly apparently decided not to confer the power to award attorneys’ fees to the Commission when it enacted Act 758 of 1985. I cannot ignore the plain fact that the General Assembly deleted language in House Bill 393 that would have authorized the Commission to award attorneys’ fees when it enacted Act 758.
Nevertheless, I am convinced that the Commission’s power to regulate public utilities will only be enhanced if the legislature authorizes it to award attorneys’ fees in appropriate cases. The ordinary ratepayer will almost always have too small a pecuniary interest at stake to justify the significant cost of challenging an allegedly excessive utility rate. Yet, such challenges, when successful, produce benefits to a range of ratepayers and serve the public interest in fair utility rates. Unless the legislature confers the power to award attorneys’ fees, it is obvious that potential challenges to allegedly excessive utility rates will go unasserted.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9770342. Public record. Not legal advice.