Pratt

This case tests the relationship and the relative jurisdiction of the Public Utilities Commission of the State of California and the courts of this state other than the Supreme Court.

The appeal is from a judgment of the superior court in favor of the defendants. The plaintiff, at the instance and direction of the Public Utilities Commission, brought action against the defendants for a balance claimed to be due as full charges for prime hauling at the rate prescribed by the commission; the defendants take the position that a prior hearing held by the Public Utilities Commission at which that body found that Coast Trucking, Inc., was the alter ego of the lumber shipper, Baugh Lumber Sales Co., Inc., and that the existence of Coast Trucking, Inc., was a mere device to enable the Baugh Lumber Sales Co., Inc., to secure lower transportation rates for their product was not binding upon the court; on the other hand, the Public Utilities Commission as amicus curiae contends in this court that those matters were wholly within the competence of the commission, that they were decided by it, that the Supreme Court was not asked to review the commission’s order, and that the superior court…