Petition of Boston Maine Railroad

The public service commission is an agency of limited powers and authority. While the legislature may delegate to such an agency certain of its own powers and authority, the exercise of such delegation does not extend beyond expressed enactment or its fairly implied inferences. The establishment of such an agency is of a special rather than general character, and power and authority not granted are withheld.

The act creating the commission (Laws 1911, c. 164) by section 3 gives it “all the powers and duties” of the railroad commission whose place it took, so far as consistent with the act, and…