Office of People's Counsel v. Public Service Commission of the District of Columbia

Summary

The District of Columbia Court of Appeals reviewed the Public Service Commission's approval of a Verizon tariff amendment allowing certain home-based businesses to receive residential telephone rates. The court held that the Commission's factual findings were subject to substantial-evidence review, upheld its general rate-classification approach, but vacated and remanded the order because the Commission materially misread the record.

Holdings

1. Regardless of whether the tariff-amendment proceeding is characterized as rulemaking or adjudication, factual findings made by the Public Service Commission from the record must be supported by substantial evidence on judicial review.
2. The Commission reasonably could permit residential rates for mixed-use home-based business customers who satisfy criteria of residential location, primarily domestic use, and residential rather than business directory listing; the absence of empirical call-volume data did not alone invalidate that classification.
3. When the Commission materially misreads the record and expressly relies on resulting factual misstatements, the order must be vacated and remanded for reconsideration where the court cannot determine that the Commission would have reached the same result without the errors.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the Public Service Commission's tariff-amendment decision was subject to substantial-evidence review even though the proceeding was treated as rulemaking rather than adjudication.
2. Whether the Commission's distinction between eligible home-based business customers and other business customers was unjustly discriminatory or lacked substantial evidentiary support.
3. Whether the Commission's material misstatements of the record required vacatur and remand.

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded