State ex rel. Weatherly v. Birmingham Water Works Co.

64 So. 23, 185 Ala. 388, 1913 Ala. LEXIS 667
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedNovember 25, 1913
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 64 So. 23 (State ex rel. Weatherly v. Birmingham Water Works Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State ex rel. Weatherly v. Birmingham Water Works Co., 64 So. 23, 185 Ala. 388, 1913 Ala. LEXIS 667 (Ala. 1913).

Opinions

SOMERVILLE, J.

The prolixity of the pleadings exhibited in this cause is such that detailed treatment is impracticable, if not impossible. Following the example of counsel, we shall under-take to discuss the pleadings only as they may be grouped under the several principles of law which we deem fundamental, to. a decision of the cause upon its merits.

The Birmingham Water Works Company was chartered by legislative act on February 13, 1885, for the express purpose of supplying the citizens of Birmingham and its suburbs with “an ample supply of good and pure water.” See B’ham W. W. Co. v. Birmmgham, 176 Ala. 301, 58 South. 204. Besides the general powers common to all corporations, the company was by this grant invested with particular franchises, including the right “to lay pipes and equeducts for conducting its water, and for that purpose make excavations through any of the streets, alleys or public grounds of the said city of Birmingham by and with the consent of the corporate au[399]*399tlioriti.es of said city.” Section 8 of the charter act specifies “that said company shall have the right to make contracts with individuals and corporations for the water to be supplied by it, and to charge for and collect such water rates and compensation therefor as may be contracted to be paid to them.” — Sess. Acts 1884-85, p. 415.

On May 31, 1888, the city of Birmingham adopted an ordinance authorizing the water company to lay in its streets and public places its mains, pipes, and fixtures “for the use of said city and its inhabitants as herein provided.” Section 3 of the ordinance declares “that the water so furnished shall be clear, wholesome and suitable for all domestic and ordinary manufacturing purposes, and sufficient in quantity for the use of said city and its inhabitants.” Section 6 provides for street hydrants and the rate and terms of payment therefor by the city, and section 12 provides a schedule of maximum fiat and meter rates to be charged domestic and other consumers. These specifications are quoted in Smith v. Water Co., 104 Ala. 322, 16 South. 123. The ordinance contains sundry other provisions and requirements not necessary to be here stated, and as thus framed and passed it was forthwith adopted by the city and the water company as their mutual contract agreement to run for thirty years.

The breaches of duty charged against the respondent may be briefly summarized as: (1). Supplying to com sumers in a large territory for three years next before the institution of this suit, and also- during numerous specified shorter periods, by willful and long-continued neglect, water that was not wholesome. (2) Willfully neglecting for a year past, and also for three months in 1912, to supply about 20 families of its consumers in a certain territory with water sufficient for domestic [400]*400use. (3) Willfully neglecting to supply six or more fire hydrants at various points on its mains with sufficient water pressure for their reasonable use, so as to deprive neighboring buildings of fire protection. (4) Willfully refusing to provide necessary service pipes from its mains to the property line of applicants for water service in specified territory. (5) Willfully and persistently for more than three months charging a part of its domestic consumers in a specified territory at meter rates instead of at the flat rates set out in said contract. As finally amended, and in support of the amended prayer for the dissolution of the respondent corporation, the information further charges that, by reason of the willful and long-continued neglect of respondent, the water which it has supplied to its domestic consumers has not been pure for more than a year before suit filed.

Before considering the merit of the case made by the information, it will be convenient- to state certain settled principles of law and public policy upon which our conclusions must be predicated:

1. It is the common law of this country, founded upon the English statute of 9 Anne, that an information in the nature of quo warranto lies in all cases originally served by the writs of quo warranto and scire facias, and embracing not only usurpations, but also abuses, either of corporate charters or particular franchises. And this proceeding is apt whether its purpose be to dissolve the corporation or to merely annul and forfeit a particular franchise. — State v. Moore, 19 Ala. 514, 420, 421; State v. Light Co., 246 Mo. 618, 152 S. W. 67; State v. A. & N. R. R. Co., 24 Neb. 143, 38 N. W. 43, 8 Am. St. Rep. 164, and note citing the authorities, 198-199; Peter v. Kendall, 5 Barn. & C. 703; 32 Cyc. 1425, 2; High on Ex. Leg. Rem. (3d Ed.) §§ 654, [401]*401660, 698, 753; Spelling, Ex. Rem. § 1813; Beach on Priv. Corp. § 45; Morawetz on Priv. Corp. § 1018.

2. Onr statutes (sections 5450-5472, Code 1907) first found in the Code of 1852 are intended to furnish a remedy coextensive in scope with the common-law information in the nature of quo warranto, and as to practice and procedure are exclusive of the common law which they have supplanted. — State v. Elliott, 117 Ala. 172, 23 South. 43.

3. Section 3513 of the Code, providing a remedy by bill in chancery in favor of municipalities against public service corporations operating under municipal franchise contracts, to enforce their performance, or in default thereof to declare such franchises forfeited and the corporations dissolved, is manifestly no bar to the remedy in the nature of quo warranto given to the state. The one looks merely to the enforcement of municipal contracts, while the other looks to the sovereign power of the state with respect to the use or abuse of franchises — which are special privileges — created by its authority, and which must as a principle of fundamental public policy, remain subject to its sovereign action in so far as the interests of the public, or any part of the public, are affected by their usurpation or abuse. — State v. Des Moines City Ry. Co., 135 Iowa, 694, 109 N. W. 867, 872; State v. Street Ry. Co., 140 Mo. 539, 41 S. W. 955, 38 L. R. A. 218, 62 Am. St. Rep. 742, 748: State v. B’ham W. W. Co., 164 Ala. 586, 51 South. 354, 27 L. R. A. (N. S.) 674, 137 Am. St. Rep. 69, 20 Ann. Cas. 951.

4. The remedy by quo warranto cannot be used for the enforcement or forfeiture of a municipal contract, although breaches of the contract which amount .to abuses of a franchise may support an information for the purpose of forfeiting the franchise or the charter of [402]*402the offender. See State v. B’ham W. W. Co., 164 Ala. 586, 591, 51 South. 354, 27 L. R. A. (N. S.) 674, 137 Am. St. Rep. 69, 20 Ann. Cas. 951; Cap. City Water Co. v. State, 105 Ala. 406, 430, 18 South. 62, 29 L. R. A. 743.

5. A franchise granted by a municipality by legislative authority, special or general, is as much a franchise granted by the state as if it were granted directly by its Legislature. — Port of Mobile v. L. & N. R. R. Co., 84 Ala. 129, 4 South. 106, 5 Am. St. Rep. 342; State v. Railroad Co., 72 Wis. 612, 40 N. W. 487, 1 L. R. A. 771; State v. Railway Co., 140 Mo. 539, 41 S. W. 955, 38 L. R. A. 218, 62 Am. St. Rep. 742; San Antonio Trac. Co. v. Altgelt, 200 U. S. 304, 26 Sup. Ct. 261, 50 L. Ed. 491; Gainesville Water Co. v. Gainesville (1910) 103 Tex. 394, 128 S. W. 370; 3 Dill. Mun. Corp. (5th Ed.) § 1228.

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Bluebook (online)
64 So. 23, 185 Ala. 388, 1913 Ala. LEXIS 667, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-weatherly-v-birmingham-water-works-co-ala-1913.