CopyCited 10 times | Published | Supreme Court of Florida | 10 Fla. L. Weekly 141, 1985 Fla. LEXIS 3271
...ining whether to issue a certificate. According to Microtel, failure to do so in the instant cases renders the Commission's actions invalid. This is based on a clearly erroneous reading of the statutes. As the Commission urges, we find that sections 364.335 and 364.337, taken together, provide for a *1191 two-step certification process. The first step, governed by section 364.335, requires the Commission to make an initial decision whether to issue a certificate, guided by the discretionary proviso that certification be in the public interest....
..."Obviously, the very conditions which may operate to make direct legislative control impractical or ineffective may also, for the same reasons, make the drafting of detailed or specific legislation impractical or undesirable." Id. at 581. In the instant situation, the legislature has provided standards and guidelines in section 364.335(1)....
...ld be provided, and to ascertain what service, if any, was currently being provided by others in geographical proximity to the territory applied for. The clear legislative intent to foster competition also illuminates the public interest standard of section 364.335(4)....
...he plan currently implemented is in the public interest. The orders are supported by competent substantial evidence, and accordingly are affirmed. It is so ordered. BOYD, C.J., and ADKINS, OVERTON, ALDERMAN, McDONALD and SHAW, JJ., concur. NOTES [1] 364.335 Application for certificate....
CopyCited 6 times | Published | District Court, S.D. Florida | 1987 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6926
...rial agreements between natural gas companies. In the first place, in other Florida statutes dealing with specific utilities, the legislature affirmatively gave the FPSC the power to establish exclusive territories for telephone companies (Fla.Stat. § 364.335-.337), [9] and water and sewer utilities *1529 (Fla.Stat....
...In this case there was no statute authorizing the regulation of light bulbs; indeed, there was no evidence of any state policy relating to light bulbs. Id. at 584-85,
96 S.Ct. at 3114-15. Therefore, the Court found that this conduct was not immunized from the Sherman Act. [9] The relevant portion of Fla.Stat. §
364.335 (1985) provides as follows: Application for certificate....
CopyCited 4 times | Published | Supreme Court of Florida
...cess switches; failure to consolidate the geographic areas would entail rate increases; and, the state regulatory body, PSC, was a strong body committed to promoting intra-LATA competition. In Florida the authority for monopoly telephone service was section 364.335(4), Florida Statutes (1981), which severely limited the authority of PSC to issue certificates of telephone service to telephone companies....
...In apparent anticipation of the forthcoming consent judgment in the AT & T case and motivated by a desire to promote competitive long distance telephone service within Florida, the legislature, in March 1982, enacted chapter 82-51, section 3, Laws of Florida, amending section 364.335 as follows: (4) The commission may grant a certificate, in whole or in part or with modifications in the public interest, but in no event granting authority greater than that requested in the application or amendments thereto and noticed under subsection (1); or it may deny a certificate....
...uthority in Microtel, Inc. v. Florida Public Service Commission,
464 So.2d 1189 (Fla. 1985), where we affirmed PSC's authority to issue certificates for competitive intrastate long distance service and upheld the standards and guidelines of sections
364.335 and 364.337, Florida Statutes (1983)....
...time the local companies will be required to justify their retention. Appellants challenge the toll monopolies provided to local exchange companies for short-haul long distance service on several grounds. They contend that PSC has no authority under section 364.335(4) to grant toll monopolies on long distance service....
...Thus, the toll monopoly areas, although significant, are limited in scope. Second, the PSC plan contemplates reexamination of the toll monopoly concept in September 1986 when the beneficiaries of the monopoly will have to justify its retention. Thus, the monopoly concept is limited in time. Third, section 364.335(4), as amended, provides that PSC may grant a certificate in the public interest....
...so expansively as to require instant, unlimited competition in all long distance services. The interim plan of PSC appears to be a well reasoned and *419 carefully crafted response to the legislative direction and to the public interest. Appellants next contend that section 364.335(4), assuming that it permits monopolies in long distance service, contains no guidelines or standards to govern the designation of such monopolies and is, thus, an unconstitutional delegation of legislative power....
CopyCited 3 times | Published | Supreme Court of Florida | 1993 WL 365714
...In Order No. 25708 at 34, issued on February 11, 1992, the Commission stated that: We find that the routes for which ECS has been approved shall be classified as local and held to fall within the ambit of "local exchange service," as that term is employed in Section 364.335....
...minute per call. The Commission treated this as local service, which generally does not allow competition. See §
364.01(3)(b), Fla. Stat. (1991). The Commission based its absolute prohibition on competition on the Extended Calling Service routes on section
364.335(3), Florida Statutes (Supp....
...1986) (quoting General Tel. Co. v. Carter,
115 So.2d 554, 556 (Fla. 1959) (footnote omitted)). However, the Commission is not entitled to this deference if it exceeds its authority. United Telephone,
496 So.2d at 118. FIXCA urges that under the plain meaning of section
364.335 the Commission had no authority to divest its members of their certificates to provide long-distance service in the affected area. See §
364.335(3), Fla....
...We agree. A general rule of statutory construction in Florida is that courts should not depart from the plain and unambiguous language of the statute. Citizens of State v. Public Serv. Comm'n,
425 So.2d 534, 541-42 (Fla. 1982). FIXCA correctly notes that section
364.335 is entitled "Application for certificate," and we agree that the statute applies only to companies seeking new certificates to provide telephone service....
...GTEFL, however, was not seeking *251 a new certificate. It already had a certificate to provide long-distance telephone service to the communities affected by Order No. 25708. Thus, GTEFL's application does not fall under the "new certificate" scope of section 364.335. Therefore, we hold that the Commission erred in using section 364.335 to restrict competition over the Extended Calling Service area....
...64.01(3)(b). By giving the Commission exclusive jurisdiction over telecommunications services, the Legislature has provided the Commission with broad authority to regulate telephone companies. Thus, it was not necessary for the Commission to rely on section 364.335 to reclassify the GTEFL tariff....
...For the reasons expressed above, we conclude the Commission was within its authority to determine the scope of local exchange service. We therefore approve the tariff adopted in Order No. 25708. It is so ordered. BARKETT, C.J., and OVERTON, McDONALD, SHAW, GRIMES and KOGAN, JJ., concur. NOTES [1] Section 364.335(3), Florida Statutes (Supp....
CopyCited 2 times | Published | Supreme Court of Florida | 12 Fla. L. Weekly 572
...eres in IXC management and is unsupported by substantial competent evidence. Like all state administrative agencies, the PSC operates under the mandate of the legislature. For the issues in dispute here, the PSC's licensing power arises chiefly from section 364.335(4), Florida Statutes (1985), which provides in pertinent part: The [PSC] may grant a certificate, in whole or in part or with modifications in the public interest, but in no event granting authority greater than that requested in the application or amendments thereto .....
...Indeed, the PSC's actions advance the three fundamental and primary legislative policies relevant to the current dispute. First, the legislature has made a decision that there shall be long-distance competition in Florida. Microtel, Inc. v. Florida Public Service Commission,
464 So.2d 1189, 1191 (Fla. 1985). See §
364.335(4). Second, the legislature has determined that there shall be no similar competition in local phone services, which will continue to be offered on a monopoly basis. §
364.335(4)....
...f [non-traffic sensitive] costs from IXCs and end users. PSC Order, slip op. at 4-5 (emphasis added). Thus, we do not reach the issue of whether local access lines for long-distance service constitute a "local exchange service" within the meaning of section 364.335(4), a position urged by counsel for the PSC....
...access to long distance service is a local service. I do not agree that this is true and note that the majority explicitly states that it does not reach the issue of whether local access lines constitute local exchange service within the meaning of section 364.335(4), Florida Statutes (1983)....
...[5] I note also that the PSC order permits bypass if the LEC fails to demonstrate that it can provide access at a lower cost and in a more timely manner than an IXC bypass. If access to long distance service is truly a monopolistic local exchange service, as PSC maintains, this bypass provision would be contrary to section 364.335(4) which prohibits duplication unless local exchange facilities are inadequate....
...In apparent anticipation of that decision, the 1982 Florida Legislature enacted chapter 82-51, section 3, Laws of Florida (1982), authorizing the PSC to permit competition in all intrastate long-distance phone service, though not in local service. See § 364.335, Fla....
CopyCited 2 times | Published | Supreme Court of Florida | 12 Fla. L. Weekly 397
...ision' that there be competition in long distance telephone service... . which had not heretofore existed." Id. at 1191. In Microtel, Inc. v. Florida Public Service Commission,
483 So.2d 415 (Fla. 1986) (Microtel II ), we further explained that when section
364.335(4) was amended in 1982, the legislature was "motivated by a desire to promote competitive long distance telephone service within Florida." Id....
...eir own facilities and compensate the LEC. Id. at 418. The appellants in Microtel II challenged the PSC's order establishing these toll monopoly areas. We approved the PSC orders and rejected the appellants' claim that the PSC had no authority under section 364.335(4) to establish toll monopoly areas for short-haul long distance calls within an EAEA....
...into *1109 twenty-two EAEAs, which resulted in a large measure of competition in intra-LATA service. Second, the PSC plan provided for reexamination of the TMAs in September 1986; thus, the TMA concept was limited in time. Third, while we found that section 364.335(4) provided that PSC may grant a certificate for providing long distance service if in the public interest, the statute "does not mandate that such certificates be issued contrary to the public interest." Id. at 418. We also rejected the appellants' claim that section 364.335(4) contained no guidelines or standards to govern the designation of TMAs, and thus was an unconstitutional delegation of legislative power: "we do not believe that it was the legislative intent that PSC issue certificates of service on demand, where it is not in the public interest, in making the ... orderly transition to full competition on long distance service." Id. at 419. [1] Finally, we rejected the appellants' claim that the PSC had represented to this Court in Microtel I that it had no authority under section 364.335(4) to deny certificates for long distance service: we do not believe that it is PSC's position that it has authority to maintain permanent toll monopolies....
...l, (i.e., non-toll) service is in the public interest, [2] and that the PSC has contrived a "roving public interest standard" to thwart the legislative will. In Microtel I,
464 So.2d at 1191, we held that the first step in the certification process, section
364.335, required the PSC "to make an initial decision whether to issue a certificate, guided by the discretionary proviso that certification be in the public interest." The second step in the process are the provisions of section 364.337; section 364.337(2) sets forth specific factors the PSC must consider in its public interest determination. In Microtel II, we again emphasized that pursuant to section
364.335(4), the PSC may issue a certificate in the public interest but "[i]t does not mandate that such certificates be issued contrary to the public interest."
483 So.2d at 418. In our view, the statutory authority for PSC to maintain these temporary TMAs is found both in the requirements of sections
364.335(4) and 364.337....
...McDONALD, C.J., and OVERTON, SHAW, BARKETT, GRIMES and KOGAN, JJ., concur. NOTES [1] We point out that we also rejected this unlawful delegation claim in Microtel I.
464 So.2d at 1191. [2] We point out, as we did in Microtel II, that the statutory amendment to §
364.335(4) was enacted in apparent anticipation of the federal breakup of AT & T, and that the federal court's MFJ approved the Florida plan of 7 LATAs....
CopyCited 1 times | Published | Florida 1st District Court of Appeal | 1992 WL 193018
...Burris, The 1989 Survey of Florida Law, Administrative Law, 14 Nova L.Rev. 583, 586 (1990). Some of the representative cases adopting the so-called pragmatic approach include Microtel, Inc. v. Florida Public Service Commission,
483 So.2d 415 (Fla. 1986), in which the court rejected an unlawful delegation argument as to Section
364.335(4), Florida Statutes, which authorized the Florida Public Service Commission to grant certificates for long distance service under the conditions specified in the statute....
CopyPublished | Supreme Court of Florida | 16 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 85, 1991 Fla. LEXIS 77, 1991 WL 6547
...Upon application, the PSC may grant a certificate if the PSC determines that issuing the certificate is “in the public interest.” Fla.Admin.Code Rule 25-24.471(3) (April 1990). An applicant for a certificate must also file with the PSC schedules showing the rates for every service it offers. § 364.335(l)(b), Fla.Stat. (1989). Once granted, the PSC has the authority to revoke, suspend, transfer, or amend a certificate. Id. § 364.335(5)....
...90. Ch. 90-244, § 50, Laws of Fla. We also note that Congress recently passed similar legislation to regulate interstate operator services. See Telephone Operator Consumer Services Improvement Act of 1990, Pub.L. No. 101-435, 104 Stat. 986 (1990). .Section 364.335(5), Florida Statutes (1989), provides: Revocation, suspension, transfer, or amendment of a certificate shall be subject to the provisions of this section; except that, when the commission initiates the action, the commission shall furnish notice to the appropriate local government and to the public counsel....
CopyPublished | Florida 1st District Court of Appeal | 1992 Fla. App. LEXIS 8918
rejected an unlawful delegation argument as to Section 364.-335(4), Florida Statutes, which authorized the
