HOLDING COMPANY ACT - "CONTROLLING INFLUENCE"

Most new and revolutionary statutes for the regulation of interstate trade and commerce cause both lawyers and businessmen many headaches before their terms become fixed in meaning by judicial interpretation. The Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 is no exception. Difficult questions of interpretation are bound to arise under a statute of such a complicated nature, leaving, as it does, so much to the discretion of administrative officers. In the spring of this year the problem of what is a "controlling influence" was brought to light by two cases.

While each case raised the question in a situation totally different from the other, fundamentally it was the same in each.