Interstate Natural Gas Co. v. Southern California Gas Co.

Plaintiff’s original complaint was held by this court, in a memorandum of decision, 102 F.Supp. 685 , to be vulnerable to a motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction of the subject matter of the action due to plaintiff’s failure to exhaust its administrative remedies.

An amended complaint has been filed in which plaintiff seeks to avoid the impact of the court’s opinion by the addition of allegations of facts which it contends, if true, resulted in an exhaustion of its administrative remedies. These allegations fail to meet the force of the opinion. They refer to oral requests that plaintiff made of the Federal Power Commission to compel the defendants to file rates. The Rules of Practice of the Federal Power Commission (18 C.F.R. 1.6), of which this court may take judicial notice, require that “Formal complaints shall be in writing and under oath”, and even informal complaints shall be in writing. If the court were to construe the complaint as alleging that the Commission had waived the formal requirements and granted a hearing u'nder Section 717d(a), Title 15 U.S.C.A., it would not avail the plaintiff. Section 717r provides for administrative and judicial review at the…