Pajaro Valley Cold Storage Co. v. Public Utilities Commission

Petitioner seeks to obtain an annulment of an order of the Public Utilities Commission pursuant to the provisions of section 1756 of the Public Utilities Code. *

The commission on its own motion on April 1,1958, ordered an investigation into the operations of petitioner (hereinafter termed “the company”), and after a hearing found that the company was a public utility, specifically a warehouseman, as defined in section 239 of the Public Utilities Code, and a food warehouseman, as defined in section 2508 of the same code.

*258 This is the sole question necessary for us to determine: Was there substantial evidence to sustain the commission’s finding that the company was a public utility—a warehouseman, as defined in section 239 of the Public Utilities Code, or a food warehouseman, as defined in section 2308 of the same code?

This question must be answered in the negative. Section 239 of the Public Utilities Code reads in part thus: “ (a) ‘Warehouseman’ includes ...(b) Every corporation or person owning, controlling, operating, or managing any building, structure, or warehouse, in which merchandise, other than secondhand household goods or effects, and other than liquid petroleum…