New Castle Water Co. v. Mahoning & Shenango Ry. & Light Co.
New Castle Water Co. v. Mahoning & Shenango Ry. & Light Co.
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
The bill filed in this case was for an injunction to restrain the appellee from drawing water from or through the pipes, mains, fire plugs and fire hydrants of the appellant, and for an accounting for water taken. No finding of fact by the court below has been assigned as error. Only those that are material need be recited.
Appellant is a corporation organized under the Act of Assembly of 1874, and the supplements thereto, for the purpose of supplying water to the public, to individuals, firms and corporations residing or doing business in the City of New Castle and in the districts adjacent thereto. The appellee is a corporation created under the Act of March 22, 1887, and operates an electric street railway on the public streets of the said city. The appellant, some years ago, erécted, constructed and has since maintained reservoirs and a filtration plant for supplying water to the said city and the inhabitants thereof, and has entered upon the public streets and highways of the said city, and laid down, maintained, and is still maintaining, pipes and mains for transporting, conveying and distributing water. On December
The complaint of the appellant is, not that the appellee is using its water for the purpose of sprinkling the streets of the City of New Castle, but that, before it can do so, it must enter into some agreement or contract to pay for the same. It is not pretended that the city itself could not take all the water needed for sprinkling purposes, for neither in the contract of December 30, 1901, nor in its renewal, is there any limitation upon the quantity of water to be furnished by the water company to the city for sprinkling its streets; but it is contended that, though this be true, the city cannot delegate to the appellee the right to take water for sprinkling purposes, and, therefore, when it took the same for such purposes, it became a trespasser, continuing its trespasses from day to day, to enjoin which this bill was filed. The city had the undoubted right to sprinkle its streets, and, in the exercise of that right, it was not required to sprinkle all of them, or any of them, from curb to curb. To enable it to sprinkle its streets, or portions of them, the water company, for a sufficient consideraiton passing to it from the city, agreed to furnish all water needed for sprinkling purposes, and in the contract to do this there
We have already observed that no finding of fact by the court below has been assigned as error, and, as a complete answer to appellant’s claim that the appellee is a trespasser, and ought to be compelled to pay for the water it takes for sprinkling purposes, we quote the following from the 21st and 22d findings: “The water taken by the defendant from plaintiff’s pipes and mains through the fire hydrants and fire plugs, and carried away in defendant’s sprinkling car, was the property of the plaintiff, but when placed in the sprinkling car it became that of the City of New Castle for the purpose of sprinkling the streets, as it was the duty of the plaintiff under its contract with the city to furnish water for sprinkling purposes, and the defendant in obtaining the water and sprinkling the streets did so as the representative of the city. The defendant continued as the representative of the city to take water at the direction of the city from the mains of the plaintiff for the purpose of sprinkling the streets on which the street railway tracks were laid, the defendant procuring such water at all times from the plugs or hydrants designated for such purposes by the chief of the fire department as
This appeal might well be dismissed on the unchallenged findings of fact, but it is proper to also note that not one of the legal conclusions of the learned chancellor has been assigned as error, and the decree dismissing the bill inevitably followed them. Six of the nine are as follows: “2. The defendant company, being incorporated under the provisions of the Act of March 22,1887, as a traction or motor power company, does not have the right or power to conduct a street sprinkling business, and the business of sprinkling streets and highways is not within its corporate rights and powers. But the city has the power to require it to sprinkle the streets used by it in operating its cars under the police power of the city, and said city may authorize it to receive the water which the city has a right to receive by the contract between the city and the water company for the purpose of sprinkling streets. 3. The use of water mentioned in the bill for sprinkling the streets in the city on which the lines of street railway were laid and operated, was within the purposes contemplated by the terms of the contract between the city and the plaintiff under which the plaintiff agreed to furnish and supply water to the city for sprinkling purposes. 4, The facts and circumstances under which defendant received and used the water for street sprinkling constituted the defendant the representative of the city for such purpose, and defendant had the right and authority to receive the water for street sprinkling from the plaintiff which the plaintiff owed to the city for such purpose under the contract between the city and the plaintiff. 5. The plaintiff by its acquiescence in the method adopted by the city of permitting defendant to receive water due to the city under the contract, and using it to sprinkle streets for
The first and second assignments complain of the admission of the testimony of Cukerbaum and Mc-Caskey, because the court referred to and commented upon it in the twelfth finding of fact. That finding, even if a material one, has not been, as already stated, assigned as error. On the facts found and the legal conclusions reached by the learned court below the decree is affirmed at appellant’s costs.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.