Golden State Milk Products Co. v. Southern Sierras Power Co.

Claiming that the defendant had made and had collected excessive charges for its service the plaintiff sued the defendant for the amount of the overcharge. Judgment went for the defendant and the plaintiff has appealed bringing up typewritten transcripts.

Formerly the plaintiff was served by the Holton Power Co. The charges of that company were fixed by schedule “P_2”. In January, 1924, that company sold its business to the defendant. Prior to the transfer the defendant had been serving some adjacent territory and its charges were fixed by schedule “P-22”. When the Railroad Commission authorized the defendant to purchase the properties of the Holton Power Co. that permission rested on the assurance that the “consolidation will not result in any change of management or rates”. In effecting the consolidation the defendant filed with the Railroad Commission “P-22” which by its terms purported to fix the charges to be collected from the plaintiff. Thereafter it was discovered that “P-22” was not a duplicate of the rate stated in “P-2” because condition “C” as written in the former document was not the same as in the latter. If the provisions of “P-22” were followed the result would…