Public Utilities – Municipal – Natural Gas – Neighboring Providers – Designated Service Area

Where the plaintiff-public works commission has already been providing natural gas in an industrial park that lies between the parties’ municipal boundaries, plaintiff has established a designated service area. Accordingly, the defendant-city could not offer its services in the park without plaintiff’s permission.

We affirm judgment for plaintiff.

At issue is a sentence from S.C. Code Ann. § 5-7-60: “For the purposes of this section[,] designated service area shall mean an area in which the particular service is being provided or is budgeted or funds have been applied for as certified by the governing body thereof.”

The phrase “as certified by the governing body” only applies to the portion of the sentence stating “funds have been applied for” and not the prior part of the sentence stating “an area in which the particular service is being provided.”

The record indicates that the parties generally observed the boundary provided by a 1992 map, though the map was never formally adopted. Because plaintiff has been providing natural gas in the area of the disputed industrial park, it has established a designated service area. Accordingly, the circuit court did not err in finding plaintiff had a designated service area in which defendant could not offer its services without plaintiff’s permission.

Affirmed.

Commissioners of Public Works v. City of Fountain Inn (Lawyers Weekly No. 011-050-18, 10 pp.) (Aphrodite Konduros, J.) Appealed from Laurens County Circuit Court (J. Cordell Maddox Jr., J.) David Holmes, Boyd Benjamin Nicholson Jr. and Sarah Patrick Spruill for Appellant; Robert Widener and Bernie Ellis for Respondent. S.C. App.