Bellevue Borough v. Manufacturers' Light & Heat Co.

Citations

• 238 Pa. 388
• 86 A. 187
• 1913 Pa. LEXIS 979

Syllabus

<p>Municipalities — Ordinances—Acts ultra vires — Gas companies— Grant of franchise — Free supply of gas to churches — Estoppel.</p> <p>A light and heat corporation which has succeeded to the rights of certain persons who had been granted a franchise by a borough to use certain streets therein for laying their gas pipes on condition that they furnish gas free to the churches of the borough may not refuse to furnish free gas while continuing to enjoy the franchise to use the streets of the borough, and in a suit brought by the borough and churches therein to enjoin the gas company from refusing to supply free gas, a defense based upon the invalidity of the borough ordinance granting the franchise is without merit, as is also a defense based upon a change in conditions since the original grant of the franchise.</p>