§269-15.5  Appeals.  Except as otherwise provided in this chapter, an appeal from an order of the public utilities commission under this chapter shall lie, subject to chapter 602, in the manner provided for civil appeals from the circuit courts.  Only a person aggrieved in a contested case proceeding provided for in this chapter may appeal from the order, if the order is final, or if preliminary, is of the nature defined by section 91-14(a).  The commission may elect to be a party to all matters from which an order of the commission is appealed, and the commission may file appropriate responsive briefs or pleadings in the appeal; provided that where there was no adverse party in the case below, or in cases where there is no adverse party to the appeal, the commission shall be a party to all matters in which an order of the commission is appealed and shall file the appropriate responsive briefs or pleadings in defending all such orders.  The appearance of the commission as a party in appellate proceedings in no way limits the participation of persons otherwise qualified to be parties on appeal.  The appeal shall not of itself stay the operation of the order appealed from, but the appellate court may stay the order after a hearing upon a motion therefor and may impose conditions it deems proper, including but not limited to requiring a bond, requiring that accounts be kept, or requiring that other measures be taken as ordered to secure restitution of the excess charges, if any, made during the pendency of the appeal, in case the order appealed from is sustained, reversed, or modified in whole or in part. [L 1998, c 195, §1; am L 2004, c 202, §28; am L 2006, c 94, §1; am L 2010, c 109, §1; am L 2016, c 48, §§9, 14; am L 2019, c 213, §1]

Cross References

  Contested cases, see §269-15.51.

Rules of Court

  Appeals, see Hawaii Rules of Appellate Procedure; stay pending appeal, see HRAP rule 8.

Case Notes

  Where a hearing on a petition for a declaratory order before the public utilities commission was discretionary and not required by law, the dismissal order was not a contested case under §91-1(5); therefore, because a direct appeal to the intermediate appellate court (ICA) under §91-14(b) and this section only applied to contested cases, appellant power company was not entitled to appeal the dismissal order directly to the ICA; thus, the ICA lacked jurisdiction over appellant's appeal.  126 H. 242 (App.), 269 P.3d 777 (2012).