City of Surprise, an Arizona Municipal Corporation, Petitioner v. Arizona Corporation Commission; Tom Forese, In…

Summary

The court held that the Arizona Corporation Commission lacks authority under A.R.S. § 40-285(A) to regulate a municipality's acquisition of a public utility through eminent domain, and it vacated the Commission's order requiring the utility to seek approval. The court also held that the City had standing and that special-action jurisdiction was appropriate because the dispute presented a purely legal question and no adequate alternative remedy existed. Justice Bolick, concurring in part and dissenting in part, would have allowed the Commission to investigate whether the purported condemnation was actually a voluntary transaction designed to avoid Commission oversight.