Gas Service Co. v. State Corporation Commission of Kansas
Kansas Court of Appeals
662 P.2d 264 (1983)

- Written by Douglas Halasz, JD
Facts
The Gas Service Company (Gas Service) (plaintiff) was a public-utility company in Kansas. Pursuant to the ratemaking process, Gas Service applied to the State Corporation Commission of Kansas (the commission) (defendant) for a rate increase. As part of the justification for the rate increase, Gas Service sought to allocate the cost of its charitable contributions to organizations such as United Way, Heart Association, Menninger’s, and educational institutions, as well as the dues paid to the Chamber of Commerce, the Rotary Club, and Kiwanis Club for its key members to the ratepayers. After a rate hearing, the commission completely disallowed the cost of the charitable contributions and dues in question as a matter of public policy without specifically stating which charitable contributions and dues it deemed to be unreasonable and the reasons for deeming them so. The commission reasoned that ratepayers should not be required to involuntarily pay the dues paid and costs of charitable contributions made by a public-utility company. Gas Service appealed.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Abbott, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 815,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,300 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.