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Show UNITED STATES FUEL 18 WINNER IN POWER CASE nEOENT COURT ORDER FAVORS C , THE COAL COMPANY. Decision of tbe Pnblk UMlitics Cora--fmlssion of Uuh Denying Hearing Op Contracts Is Resisted By Largest vljatron of Numerous Ones In the iCarbon County Fields. Jli Tlio United Stnto-i Smelting, Hefin-ing? Hefin-ing? ami Mining company nnd tho UnHetl States Fuel compnny on Wed nesdny last nt Salt Lake City obtain cdjfrom th supremo court of Utnh a wnl of certiorari d. reeled to tho pub-t pub-t f!i M com'lioii 1n what nro kmjjttm as I lie "s)ccinl wmlrect power pow-er cases," mi far ns thej crfeol the twjf eoimmiues. Tho writ wns mndo .rJ$?r1,u,,,'e December 10th, noxt, winch means that under the rule of ira r,,urt Ihe mailer will be nr-CW1 nr-CW1 t Hint time. However, it is bellovi.! Ihnt the I'tnh Copier Mln-and Mln-and oik 1.1 two others, will Iske simi-Inrjbi.tM.n simi-Inrjbi.tM.n nfrnitiM Hit eomnissmn In irf "N(,n' lhr ",re"" ",,rl ""-y ' Km r date for the hearing of nil the' cay nl the Mine time. The ortler of tho. iuU c eominitMiou denying n re negring in the Nuer eontraol onies wnj i-iied nlsnil November llllb, and the; r.-mpanies interasteil linye thirty days under the lnw in wlf ch to nmdy foarils of review. Koventl have been expired to lake such hcIioii, hiiiI it is hcllrred Mint some intend, If ueee-snrj, ueee-snrj, j fight tho onso through to the junrcme court of tho Unlleil Slates. ItW unite probable, also, that the! Uttjli Power nnd Light coman, whtit', while techiiicnllv n defendant ln lie proeeeiLngii before tho win-Jjiln- ii, found itself opinwd to eneh mCle other dofendanls, would take sTt to -'" United Hutes supreme sf 7.- '-td tba Utnh body .decide against the commission. The proceeding proceed-ing now 111 question wns initiated by tho utilities commissinn when it ordered ord-ered tho holders of nlxnit fifty-seven sjieeinl oontracU with the I'tflh Power nnd light to npiiear before the commission com-mission to justify the terms of those eontraots. Tho commission's order was to the effect that the rales mentioned men-tioned in (he contracts appeared to be preferential nnd discriminatory. Long and Delayed. Tho hearing was a long one and was delayed by a jiervions appeal to the supremo court by two Ogden cement conipunloa, which contended that the commission had no right to institute such proceedings. Tho supreme court, however, refused to itwuo any writ of proldbltiou, nud tho hearing wns held beforo tho uUlitios oommiiuuDU. That body decided that tlio rates in praeti tally all tho eontraots were preferential, preferen-tial, and ordered that the contract holdors bo placed, as to the rates in their contracts on tho basis provided b tho company V reguur seliediilos for son-ice k imlur to that received by the rospeeti.u oiistomera holding special spe-cial contracts. Tho decision, if upheld, up-held, would raiso the revenues of the I'tah Power and Light eompmiy ap-proximately ap-proximately $1,000,000 u jer. The rmted Status Smelting ooiiiMiiy holds .1 contract with the power coniMiny at n rate oonsiderably lower than the sthodulo rate, and the contract is r-volcalilu r-volcalilu by either wi1y on six mouths' iiatleu. Tho Uuitetl Slates Fuel company com-pany holds n ten-year contract w.th the power couiHiuy, whiuli still luts Mvurnl jonrs to run. The rule, however, how-ever, doos not differ so widely fiom the schedule rate. In the petition for a writ of certiorari, counsel for the two companies alleged that the commission com-mission did not give full fore und effect ef-fect to tho proviso in the law creating the commission, whieli wns to the of-Hit of-Hit that the oxlstiug contracts found bv tho commUfcian at the time it was inrmod should not be ultoied if they contn.nail ndeiuato consideration nud wcro lawful when imide. The petition also alleged (hat the contracts were interod into as 11 result of a special unsidoration of value to the jiower company, justifying the low rate at vvhioh power wns to ho doltvered under un-der tho coutrnut. In tho ease of the smelting compauy this was, according to ovidfjiico presented to the oommis--iou ut the hearing, tho giing up of an option to pure huso an old Mill t'reek power plant nnd site, Tho fuel company granted tho power company extension of its poworlines ovei tho fuel company's property. This is held to 1)0 n valuable property right Boyond Its Power. The third ground on which tho writ of ccrtorari was usked is 0110 in which it is thought sovoral of tho other contract' con-tract' holders will ho interested. It is that tho commission, in ordoring tho cniuMmie to go on nUmhml schedule, is noting he.voud its xiwnr in that it j is taking away proiiert) without due' process of law, ami is attempting to' impair the obligation of existing eon-I eon-I rants. Some of the eoutract holders say they are not ijuite clear in the ootuUMoaiott's decision as to whtiher the eoumusaiou is abrogating tbe exist ex-ist ug wnitrstns 01 is orilernig the customers cus-tomers U) Miy more for their Mi.er iIihii is remmed under the term, of tho ooi.lraet. It is etuitsudetl that to continue the existing contracts in effect, ef-fect, hut to nt se the rates therein might result in ruinous losses to the! contrast holders, ami would lw especially, espec-ially, in that ctue, the takiug of property prop-erty without due process of law The terms of lawful existing contract are also protected by elaiwes 111 both federal fed-eral and state constitutions. All the com! eowiMimes oKntiug in Carl urn count), with the exeepfiou of the Utah Fuel, are buying electric juice from the Utah Power aud Ugbt company. Several nre threatening to put 111 then own plants it rales are raised to any extent. |