Berner v. Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission

Opinion by

Mr. Chief Justice Horace Stern,

This is an appeal which we allowed from an order of the Superior Court (Berner v. Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, 177 Pa. Superior Ct. 19, 107 A. 2d 882), affirming, by a sharply divided vote, a final order of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission which had approved an increase in rates requested under tariff supplements filed by the Commonwealth Telephone Company in November, 1952,

The principal issue involved concerns the nature and extent of the burden of a utility to establish in a rate case the reasonableness of its dealings with…