Cook v. Pennsylvania Power & Light Co.

14 Pa. D. & C. 599
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Dauphin County
DecidedMarch 15, 1929
DocketEquity Docket, No. 903
StatusPublished

This text of 14 Pa. D. & C. 599 (Cook v. Pennsylvania Power & Light Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Dauphin County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cook v. Pennsylvania Power & Light Co., 14 Pa. D. & C. 599 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1929).

Opinion

Pox, J.

We have before us preliminary objections to the bill of complaint filed in the above stated case.

The bill of complaint, after setting forth the usual matter of residences of the parties, the purposes and location of the defendant, to wit, that it is engaged in business as a power company generating electricity and operating a line or lines of wires for current transmission strung upon poles along Hudson, Sycamore and , South Eighteenth Streets in the City of Harrisburg, in front of the properties and residences of plaintiffs, avers, in substance, as follows, viz., in paragraph 5, that the defendant placed its wires on its poles without any insulation or other device for the safety of persons residing on the streets aforesaid, including the petitioners; in paragraph 6, that the defendant advised the plaintiffs when it erected its poles that not more than 1100 volts of electricity would be transmitted over each of its said six wires, that no danger would arise therefrom, and, therefore, the plaintiffs delayed their proceedings to enjoin the defendant; in paragraph 7, that there has been transmitted 11,000 volts of electricity over each of said wires instead of 1100; in paragraph 8, that in the stringing of its said wires [600]*600and cables the defendant placed the same above and across wires of other companies, to wit, telephone and light, running across and leading into the homes of the plaintiffs and others of the neighborhood; that because of the wires and cables of the defendant not being insulated and running as aforesaid over wires of other public service companies, they are highly dangerous to human life and the property of plaintiffs and to others occupying said street, so that there is great and imminent danger to the lives and properties of the plaintiffs ; in the 9th paragraph, that the plaintiffs are owners and users of radio receiving sets, and since, and continuously since, said defendant turned on its power as aforesaid, and as the result thereof, they have been greatly hindered, annoyed and prevented from the proper use of their radio receiving sets, in that, although previously thereto they were accustomed to have and enjoy uninterrupted radio reception from numerous broadcasting stations operating in different and remote cities of the United States, since the date aforesaid, they have been prevented from enjoying said sets and are now able to receive the programs of local broadcasting stations only.

The prayer of the bill in substance is, that an injunction be granted, restraining and prohibiting the Pennsylvania Power and Light Company, defendant, from the further transmission of electric current over its wires as now existing, from transmitting any current of electricity over its uninsulated wires in sufficient volume to amount to a nuisance to the plaintiffs in the use of their radio receiving sets; that a mandatory injunction be granted, requiring the defendant to remove its poles and wires from the streets mentioned in the bill, and for general relief.

The preliminary objections to the bill are as follows:

“1. Upon the facts averred in the bill of complaint the plaintiffs have a full, complete and adequate remedy at law which is specifically provided by the Public Service Company Law, approved July 26, 1913, P. L. 1374.

“2. The defendant should not be required to answer the facts averred in the plaintiff’s bill of complaint, for the reason that the defendant has a full and complete defense to the plaintiffs’ claim in this court, which does not require the production of evidence to sustain it, to wit, that this court is without jurisdiction to hear and determine the cause of action set out in said bill of complaint.”

With respect to paragraphs 5, 6, 7 and 8 of the bill, we think the matters complained of are within the jurisdiction of the Public Service Act of July 26, 1913, P. L. 1374. Article n, section 1 (a), (c) and (t), and article v, section 2, are applicable to paragraph 5. Article V, section 1, is applicable to paragraphs 6 and 7 of the bill; article ill, section 5, and article V, sections 2 and 13, are applicable to paragraph 8 of the bill. Article II, section 1, provides that it shall be the duty of every public service company to furnish and maintain such service, including facilities, as shall in all respects be just, reasonably adequate and practically sufficient for the accommodation and safety of its patrons, employees and the public, and in conformity with such reasonable regulations or orders as may be made by the commission. In article V, section 1, relating to the powers and duties of the commission, it is provided that the commission shall have ■ general administrative power and authority to inquire into and regulate the service of all public service companies; and in section 2: “Whenever the commission shall determine, after hearing had upon its own motion, or upon complaint, as hereinafter provided, that the service, facilities, rules, regulations, practices or classifications of any public service company in respect to, or in connection with, or. employed by, or in the performance of, its public duties within this Commonwealth, are unsafe, inade[601]*601quate, insufficient, unjust or unreasonable, the commission shall determine and specify by an order in writing, to be made and filed as hereinafter provided, and to be served as hereinafter provided upon every public service company to be affected thereby, the just, reasonable, safe, adequate and sufficient service, facilities, rules, regulations or practices thereafter to be put in force, observed, rendered, used or furnished in the performance of its public duties by said public service company or companies, and thereupon it shall be the duty of every public service company affected by said order to observe and obey said order and all and every the mandates and requirements thereof.”

Section 13 provides in substance that the commission may, after hearing upon its own motion or complaint, establish such standards of facilities and service of public service companies as shall be reasonably necessary for the safety, accommodation or convenience of its patrons, employees or the public.

In the case of Fogelsville & T. Elec. Co. v. Pennsylvania P. & L. Co., 271 Pa. 237, the Supreme Court, inter alia,, at page 240, said: “But the legislature has the power to determine who shall promulgate and enforce its declared public policy, and when an agency of the government is selected or created for that purpose, no other body, judicial, executive or municipal, can step in and by decree, order, ordinance or otherwise, actively enforce the policy oído other acts in relation thereto, except, possibly, to sustain the legislatively created or designated body. By act of assembly, the Public Service Commission was the designated government agency to enforce its declared public policy, whether that policy originated by statute or was created by the commission. It is an arm of the state government, created for the benefit of the people, as well as the utilities it in part controls. There has been placed under the regulation, supervision and control of the commission, generally, all matters relating to rights, facilities, service and other correlated matters of a public service company. By this act a complete system in itself is presented to enforce such powers: York Water Co. v. York, 250 Pa. 115, 118. Courts were not intended to be the administrative tribunal for this purpose. The commission has not decided this appellant is not within its regulatory control and may not be compelled to respond to a complaint filed against it.

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Bluebook (online)
14 Pa. D. & C. 599, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cook-v-pennsylvania-power-light-co-pactcompldauphi-1929.