New England Telephone & Telegraph Co. v. Public Utilities Commission
Supreme Judicial Court of Maine
448 A.2d 272 (1982)
New England Telephone & Telegraph Co. (NET) (plaintiff) filed revised tariffs seeking a $39.5 million rate increase. The Public Utilities Commission (defendant) held a sixteen-day hearing with about 33 witnesses, after which hearing examiners issued a report and gave the parties a week to file exceptions. Roughly eight to nine days later, the Commission issued an order adopting the examiners' findings almost verbatim and denying NET's proposed increase. NET challenged the decision, arguing the short review period and near-verbatim adoption showed the Commission had not independently and adequately reviewed the record.
Whether an administrative agency violates due process by relying on a hearing examiner's report, adopted largely verbatim, in reaching its decision.