Franklin Power & Light Co. v. Middle Tennessee Electric Membership Corp.

434 S.W.2d 829, 222 Tenn. 182, 26 McCanless 182, 1968 Tenn. LEXIS 421
CourtTennessee Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 11, 1968
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 434 S.W.2d 829 (Franklin Power & Light Co. v. Middle Tennessee Electric Membership Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Tennessee Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Franklin Power & Light Co. v. Middle Tennessee Electric Membership Corp., 434 S.W.2d 829, 222 Tenn. 182, 26 McCanless 182, 1968 Tenn. LEXIS 421 (Tenn. 1968).

Opinions

Mr. Chiee Justice Burnett

delivered the opinion of the Court.

The parties will hereinafter be referred to as they appeared in the trial court; that is, Middle Tennessee Electric Membership Corporation, complainant, and Franklin Power and Light Company, defendant.

Certiorari was granted in this case in which the question to be answered by this Court is who has the right to furnish electricity to an area which has been supplied by one' utility district when such area is annexed to a town which is being served by another utility under-a franchise granted by the town.

The pertinent facts and history of the case are as follows:

The complainant is a co-operative, non-profit electric membership corporation chartered in 1936. The defendant is an investor owned public utility incorporated under the laws of Tennessee. .

The complainant filed a bill in the Chancery Court for Williamson County, Tennessee, for an injunction ■ to [185]*185restrain tlie defendant corporation from construction of electric power facilities and from serving subscribers within certain areas annexed by the Town of Franklin. The complainant alleged that it had served members in the newly annexed areas for a number of years and that it had a right to continue to serve these and other persons within the annexed areas. .

It was alleged that on June 24, 1929, the Town of Franklin granted a franchise to the defendant for the purpose of “providing and furnishing electrical energy and power to the Town of Franklin and its inhabitants.” It was further alleged that the areas in question were annexed by the Town of Franklin on November 2, 1964. The complainant alleges that the defendant has begun the construction of utility poles and other equipment in the areas in question and that such action is in violation of T.C.A. sec. 65-414 and sec. 6-604. It is also alleged, that the defendant is in violation of a contract executed between Tennessee Yalley Authority and the defendant. .

An injunction fiat was issued. The defendant answered and filed a cross-bill. In its answer the defendant denied that it was in violation of the above mentioned sections of T.C.A., or of any contract provisions executed between it and the Tennessee Yalley Authority. The defendant thus.asserted that it held the only valid franchise to serve persons in the newly annexed areas.

The defendant further alleged that on February 26, 1956, it entered into an agreement with the complainant by which it was agreed that the defendant, Franklin Power and Light Company, had the right to serve electric customers located within the corporate limits of the Town of Franklin as from time to time expanded; and [186]*186that the complainant has recognized this agreement in the past but has failed to so recognize it now. It was also alleged by the defendant that it has offered to pay the complainant for the complainant’s property in these annexed areas as has been done in the past, but that this offer has been refused. The defendant also asked for damages for breach of this alleged contract and for the complainant wrongfully suing out the injunction.

The matter was heard by agreement on oral testimony before Chancellor Wallace J. Smith, who retired before rendering a decision. Thereafter, Chancellor John H. Henderson Jr., who succeeded Chancellor Smith, rendered a decision that the defendant, Franklin Power and Light Company, held the “only valid franchise to serve the people within the corporate limits of the Town of Franklin as from time to time expanded”, and that therefore it acquired the right to serve the persons within the areas in question and that the complainant had no such right.

The Chancellor specifically held that the defendant was not in violation of either of the Code Sections mentioned in the complainant’s bill. The Chancellor further held that the injunction was wrongfully issued. He dissolved said injunction and referred the question of damage for the wrongfully suing out of the injunction to the master for a specific finding.

The complainant then perfected an appeal to the Court of Appeals. That court held that regardless of whether the complainant, Middle Tennessee Electric Membership Corporation, had acquired a franchise from the Town of Franklin (it was stated that it had not done so), it had a vested right to continue to serve the members which it [187]*187was serving at the time of the annexation. The Court of Appeals farther stated that “the taking away of such rights without just compensation violates both the spirit and the letter of Article I, Section 21 of the Constitution of Tennessee.”

It was further held in the opinion of the Court of Appeals that the complainant could not solicit and serve new members in the annexed areas without a franchise from the Town of Franklin. The only exception to this was that the complainant could add transferee members where pre-annexation members had resigned, moved away or for some other reason had discontinued their membership; “provided, however, that only subsequent occupants of those houses or places of business actually connected to the co-op lines as of date of annexation would be eligible as such transferee members.”

The Court of Appeals then stated that the defendant could compete with the complainant for the business of the residents of the newly annexed areas and that the Chancellor was correct in concluding that the injunction was wrongfully issued.

The defendant, Franklin Power and Light Company, petitioned for a writ of certiorari attacking that portion of the decree of the Court of Appeals which allowed the complainant to continue serving customers within the annexed areas. We granted the writ and after considering oral and written argument and independently researching the matter, we are in a position to render a decision.

In so doing our task is twofold. First to consider the statute applicable to the problem at hand in an attempt to determine whether the Legislature has laid down any laws governing the situation at hand; and second to [188]*188determine whether these statutes violate any constitutional provisions.

A review of the pertinent Code Sections leads us to believe that it is the intention of the Legislature that before any corporation may furnish electricity within the territory of a municipality it must have the permission of that municipality, such permission being in the form of a franchise. This would appear to be true even where the corporation has, as is the case here, been serving the area before it became a part of the municipality.

T.C.A. sec. 6-318, which deals with annexation, provides in part that:

íí* * * The annexing municipality, if and to the extent that it may choose, shall have the exclusive right to perform or provide municipal and utility functions and services in any territory which it annexes, notwithstanding sec. 6-2607 or any other statute[Emphasis added].

This provision appears to us to deal directly with the problem at hand. The remainder of the statute sets up an arbitration procedure to be followed by the parties provided they cannot agree as to the details of the- change in operation, if there has to be a change.' -

T.C.A. see. 65-2205 invests corporation such as the complainant with certain powers relating to the placing of its electric wires, etc. However, the first sentence of this statute reads:

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Franklin v. MID TENN. ELEC.
434 S.W.2d 829 (Tennessee Supreme Court, 1968)

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Bluebook (online)
434 S.W.2d 829, 222 Tenn. 182, 26 McCanless 182, 1968 Tenn. LEXIS 421, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/franklin-power-light-co-v-middle-tennessee-electric-membership-corp-tenn-1968.