People Ex Rel. Orloff v. Pacific Bell

Public Utilities Code section 1759 (hereafter section 1759) provides that only this court and the Court of Appeal possess jurisdiction to review decisions of the California Public Utilities Commission (PUC) or “to enjoin, restrain, or interfere with” the PUC in the performance of its duties. Thus, an action filed in superior court against a public utility subject to the jurisdiction of the PUC can be precluded by section 1759, where the action would “interfere with” the authority of the PUC. Here, several district attorneys filed a civil action in superior court, alleging that a public utility violated the law by engaging in false advertising and unfair business practices. An administrative enforcement proceeding involving some of the same allegations of misconduct by this utility was pending in the PUC at the time the civil action was filed, and the superior court and the Court of Appeal concluded that because the present action might result in conflicting rulings with the parallel PUC proceeding, the action would interfere with the authority of the PUC and thus was barred by section 1759.

We conclude that the lower courts erred in determining that the present action is…