The petitioner, Davies Warehouse Company, is incorporated under the laws of California and conducts a public warehouse in Los Angeles. Its business is declared to be that of a public utility both by the Constitution of California and its Public Utilities Act. The Act subjects to regulation by the Railroad Commission all warehouses which serve the public generally for compensation. § 2 1/2. New warehouses may be established only after obtaining certificates of public convenience and necessity, which the Commission may refuse or condition and may suspend or revoke at any time for cause. § 50 1/2. Petitioner must grant nondiscriminatory and equal rates to everyone, and it may not alter any existing rate or charge without permission. §§ 19, 15. The Commission upon its own motion or upon complaint may determine 'the just, reasonable or sufficient rates' and fix the same by order. § 32. Petitioner is required to make periodic reports and is subject to numerous restrictions and disabilities. §§ 29, 51, 52, 75, 76, et seq.
Several public warehouses, including the one before us, made application to the Commission for general rate increases. The Commission gave a public hearing in February 1942. From undisputed testimony it appeared that: notice of hearing had been sent to over 3,000 customers and no one appeared in opposition; rates had not been advanced since 1938; wages, however, had been advanced on four different occasions; materials and supplies and wages of clerical and supervisory employees had also increased; overall costs of operation had risen during the period 20-26 per cent. On May 12, 1942, the Commission authorized a general 15 per cent advance which, it said, 'will permit applicants to increase their rates to reimburse them in part for their added labor expense.' The permission was so conditioned, however, that the reasonableness of any particular rate could be attacked by any customer, either by way of reparation proceeding, for which the Act makes provision, or otherwise. The effective date of the new rates was set by the Commission as May 22, 1942.
In the meantime the United States Price Administrator, acting under the Emergency Price Control Act, on April 28, 1942 issued a General Maximum Price Regulation. The effect of the federal regulation and later amendments would have been to prohibit petitioner after July 1, 1942 from charging the rate authorized by the California Railroad Commission.
This federal Act provides that 'nothing in this Act shall be construed to authorize the regulation of * * * (2) rates charged by any common carrier or other public utility.' Petitioner, asserting itself to be within this exemption, made timely protest to the Price Administrator, which was denied. It then filed a complaint with the United States Emergency Court of Appeals, on which the Act confers exclusive original jurisdiction to determine the validity of regulations, asking it to set aside the General Maximum Price Regulations in so far as they purport to regulate its charges. The Emergency Court of Appeals dismissed the complaint. Davies Warehouse Co. v. Brown, 137 F.2d 201, 209. Importance of the construction of the Act to its administration led us to grant certiorari. 64 S.Ct. 40.
Congress, in omitting to define 'public utility' as used in the Act, left to the Administrator and the courts a task of unexpected difficulty. Use of that term in a context of generality wears an appearance of precision which proves illusory when exact application becomes necessary. Relevant authorities and considerations are numerous and equivocal, and different plausible definitions result from a mere shift of emphasis. It may be contended that the exemption runs in favor of any business generally and traditionally regarded as a utility, irrespective of actual state regulation. Or it may be urged to include any enterprise actually regulated as are utilities, regardless of traditional classification. Or it may be said to extend only to those businesses where actual utility regulation exists along with general and traditional utility character.