Algiers Ry. & Lighting Co. v. New Orleans Ry. & Light Co.

68 So. 960, 137 La. 579
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedJune 11, 1915
DocketNo. 21375
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 68 So. 960 (Algiers Ry. & Lighting Co. v. New Orleans Ry. & Light Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Algiers Ry. & Lighting Co. v. New Orleans Ry. & Light Co., 68 So. 960, 137 La. 579 (La. 1915).

Opinion

SOMMERVILLE, J.

Plaintiff, as the successor of the Algiers Waterworks & Electric Company, sought a preliminary injunction against the defendant, as the successor of the New Orleans Railway Company of New Jersey, enjoining, restraining, and prohibiting the defendant company from selling or furnishing electric current, light, and power to any person other than the plaintiff company, in the Fifth district of the city of New Orleans and in the two adjoining parishes, Jefferson and Plaquemines, on the west bank of the Mississippi river, and especially from selling said electric current to the Consumers’ Electric Light & Power Company to be distributed in the Fifth district of the city of New Orleans, McDonoghville, and Gretna, or anywhere in the parishes of Jefferson and Plaquemines, on the west bank of the Mississippi river, and to prevent defendant from soliciting, contracting, or attempting to solicit and contract, for the sale, disposition, or furnishing to any person, firm, or corporation, other than plaintiff itself, electric current, electric light, and electric power to be used in the named localities. It further asked that the injunction prayed for be perpetuated, and for costs, and general and equitable relief.

Plaintiff bases its action upon two contracts, alleged to have been entered into August 24, 1904, between the Algiers Waterworks & Electric Company and the New Orleans /Railway Company of New Jersey, whereby the latter agreed to furnish the former all the electric current it might need for its business in the Fifth district of New [581]*581Orleans and the adjoining parishes on the west bank of the Mississippi river, for ten years, also the undertaking of the obligation of the said railways company in respect to its contract with the city of New Orleans for municipal arc lighting in the Eifth district of said city; said contracts providing for an assignment, in whole or in part, thereof to the successor or purchaser of the plant or business of either party. The contracts are attached to and made parts of the original petition.

Petitioner expressly alleges that defendant is violating article 7 of the contract referred to, which reads as follows:

“The railways company agrees to furnish all the current needed by the Algiers Company, and also agrees that it will not sell - or otherwise furnish electric current, electric light, or power to any other person, firm, or corporation than the Algiers Company, in Orleans and the two adjoining parishes on the west bank of the Mississippi river; it being the intent of this clause that all electric current shall be furnished by and through the Algiers Company.”

Petitioner further alleges that it is informed, believes, and so avers that the defendant is violating the said contract; that it did, on or before April 9, 1915, between four and five months prior to the expiration of the contracts referred to, enter into an agreement with the Consumers’ Electric Light & Power Company to furnish it with electric current for sale, use, and distribution in Gretna and the parish of Jefferson, without said Consumers’ Company purchasing, or offering to purchase, the electric current by and through petitioner, and that defendant has furnished the Consumers’ Electric Company, and other parties, located in Gretna, electric current, all in violation of the contract rights between plaintiff and defendant.

Plaintiff further avers that, unless restrained, defendant will continue to violate the contract, to petitioner’s great damage and irreparable injury; that the value of its rights under the provisions of the seventh paragraph of said contract exceeds the sum of $10,000; that a writ of injunction is necessary to protect petitioner’s rights in the premises.

The judge of the district court issued a rule nisi, and, after hearing, declined to issue a preliminary injunction. Plaintiff now asks that a mandamus issue; directed to the district judge, to compel him to issue a preliminary writ of injunction in the case.

[1] The district judge answers that a mandamus should not issue herein for the reasons: (1) That under article 1929, R. O. C., the breach of an obligation not to do does not of right entitle the obligee to an injunction. The matter comes within the purview of article 303 and article 296, O. P., and is left to the discretion of the court. (2) Relator can be adequately compensated in damages. Although alleging irreparable injury, relator has valued the right which it seeks to enforce by injunction at over $10,000. (3) The obligation assumed by the obligor, the New Orleans Railway & Light Company, towards relator, is partly to do and partly not to do. Had it been breached in toto, injunctive relief could not be obtained. No good reason is suggested why specific performance should be secured by injunction because the obligation had been partially breached, even though the breach be of that part which is not to do.

The contract under consideration obligates the defendant to furnish to the plaintiff electric power for use in the Eifth district of the city of New Orleans, Jefferson and Plaque-mines parishes, on the west bank of the Mississippi river, and not to furnish electric power to others.

Plaintiff does not allege that defendant has failed to furnish it with the electricity contracted for; but the complaint is that the defendant has contracted to furnish electric current to the Consumers’ Electric Light & Power Company, which appears to have a contract for furnishing electric current to the intervener herein, the Gretna Light & [583]*583Power Company, which has a contract to light the city of Gretna.

Plaintiff bases its suit for injunction to prevent the defendant from doing an act which it contends may he injurious to it (plaintiff) or impair a right which it claims. And it argues that the respondent judge had no discretion in the matter, and should have issued a preliminary injunction when applied for by it, and supports its argument by reference to article 1929, C. C., which reads:

“If the obligation be not to do, the obligee may also demand that the obligor be restrained from doing anything in contravention of it, in cases where he proves an attempt to do the act covenanted against.”

The foregoing article explicitly states the law with reference to obligations “not to do”; that a remedy by injunction will lie; and in the case of Levine v. Michel, 35 La. Ann. 1121 (1127), we hold it to be the legal duty of the obligor to comply with the terms of the contract, and the legal right of the obligee to exact compliance; in other words, the obligee may enforce a contract not to do by specific performance. And that a violation of said contract is injurious to plaintiff and impairs a right which he claims, and is therefore a proper subject for injunction, within the very terms of article 296, C. P. The right of action was maintained; and the injunction issued in the case was perpetuated.

But in that case the district judge, in the exercise of the discretion vested in him by the law, had issued a preliminary injunction, while in this case, under that same law, the district judge, in his discretion, has refused to issue a preliminary injunction.

[2, 3] On the breach of any obligation to do or not to do, the obligee is entitled either to damages or, in cases which permit it, to a specific performance of the contract, at his option; or he may require fhe dissolution of the contract.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
68 So. 960, 137 La. 579, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/algiers-ry-lighting-co-v-new-orleans-ry-light-co-la-1915.