Bellevue Borough v. Ohio Valley Water Co.
Bellevue Borough v. Ohio Valley Water Co.
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
We fully agree with the general conclusions reached by the learned court below, and nothing contained in this record, or said in the argument, would warrant us in disturbing the decree refusing the motion for a preliminary injunction. If the case in any of its aspects involves the reasonableness or unreasonableness of water rates, it is a sufficient answer to say that the section of the Act of April 29, 1874, P. L. 73, which gave courts the power to determine questions of this character was repealed by the Public Service Company Law, approved July 26, 1913, P. L. 1374. In other words the legislature took this power away from the courts and conferred it upon the Public Service Commission. Hereafter, so long as the Act of 1913 remains in force, the question of the reasonableness of rates established by public service corporations, must in the first instance be submitted to the Public Service Commission when challenged. This is now the declared statutory policy of the law, and it is binding not only upon the interested parties, but upon the courts as well. We do not know that this position is seriously controverted by learned counsel for either side of the present controversy.
We agree with the learned court below that the Public Service Commission is the only tribunal that has the power, as the law now stands, to give the complainants the relief prayed for in the present bill, if such relief be deemed proper.
Decree affirmed at the cost of the appellants.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Bellevue Borough v. The Ohio Valley Water Company
- Cited By
- 29 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- Water companies — Contract with municipal corporations — Increase of water rates — Unenforceable provisions. 1. A contract between a borough and a water company, whereby the water company is granted the right to lay pipes and mains in the streets of the borough, with a stipulation that certain specified rates shall be charged the borough and its inhabitants for water, unlimited by its terms and hence indeterminate as to. time, cannot be enforced indefinitely, and the water company is not thereby precluded from raising its rates, if its necessities so require. Courts — Power to determine reasonableness of water rates— Public Service Commission — Acts of April 89, 187k, P- L. 78, Clause 7, Section 8k, and July 86,1918, P. L, 187k — Equity—Preliminary injunction. 2. So much of Clause 7, Section 34, of the Act of April 29,1874, P. L. 73, as conferred upon the courts the power to determine questions relating to the resonableness or unreasonableness of water rates, has been repealed by the Act of July 26, 1913, P. L. 1374, which conferred this power upon the Public Service Commission. 3. Where in a suit in equity, brought by a borough and certain taxpayers to enjoin a water company from increasing its rates above the schedule fixed by the contract between the borough and the water company, at the time when the franchise was granted, it appeared that the stipulation fixing the rate was indeterminate as to time, the court made no error in refusing a preliminary injunction.