Allied Associations v. Public Service Commission

Citations

• 70 Pa. Super. 13
• 1918 Pa. Super. LEXIS 156

Syllabus

<p>Street railways — Extension—Municipal consent — Public Service Commission.</p> <p>The Public Service Commission has no power to compel the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company and two companies consolidated with it, to build extensions in certain territory, where there is nothing whatever in the charter of the transit company and one of the consolidated companies authorizing them to build extensions in the territory in question, and the charter of the other consolidated company only permits it to build extensions if it secures municipal consent and there is nothing to show that any steps had been taken to secure such consent. The fact that the charter of one of the consolidated companies was subject to the provision of Sec. 20, of the Railroad Act of February 19, 1849, P. L. 79, reserving to the Commonwealth the rights to alter or amend its charter, is immaterial inasmuch as the Public Service Commission is not invested with authority to enlarge the powers of the corporations, so as to give them the right to build extensions. ,</p> <p>Where a contract between the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company and the City of Philadelphia provides conditions under which extensions are to be made with municipal consent, such contract cannot be construed as giving authority to the Public Service Commission to compel the transit company to build extensions irrespective of the city’s consent, or to compel the city to give its consent to such extensions.</p>