Show I 1 it 1 11 B DS S ili it HE CASE at least a temporary respite has been won by the telluride power company in its contention against the state public utilities commission in ordering this company to make a 10 per cent re ducton in rates effective december 22 an order was issued tuesday by federal judge tillman D john son temporarily restraining the utilities commission commis slon from penalty ing the telluride power company for failure to put this rate ion into effect the commission Is also restrain ed pending the result of a hearing on the power company s request for an interlocutory injunction from Inter ferring with the telluride power company in rendering bills and making collections from con sumers at the same rates which were in effect prior to the corn com mission s order of december 12 1933 this means that for the time being consumers served by the tell power company will continue to pay for electric service at the old rates the company was required to post a bond of to reimburse their consumers in case that in a final dec islon the reduction ordered in rates shall be upheld this restraining order came as the result of a complaint tiled filed by the telluride power company monday asking that the order tor for a rate re be set aside on the grounds that it would cause the comp company anys s revenue to be so reduced that bankruptcy would result the hearing for the request for an interlocutory injunction cannot be held before the week of february 5 and judge johnson in taking ac tion pointed out that unless the re straining order was issued the power company would suffer irreparable loss and damage by being forced to chose either to obey the order of the commission and send out its bills based on the reduced rates or dis regard the commission commissions s order and run the risk of incurring crimial and civil penalties it if bills were sent out on the reduced rate basis and they should later be set aside by the court it would be impossible from a practical standpoint to collect the difference from the power company 8 S consumers richfield reaper |