Borough of Wilkinsburg v. Public Service Commission

Citations

• 72 Pa. Super. 423
• 1919 Pa. Super. LEXIS 334

Syllabus

<p>Constitutional law — Public service corporations — Street railways - —Contracts with municipalities — Bates.</p> <p>1. The enactment of the Public Service 'Company Law (Act of July 26, 1913, P. L. 1374) gave to the Public Service Commission “the power to inquire into and regulate the service, rates, fares, tolls or charges of any and all public service corporations” and is a valid delegation of the police power of the Commonwealth.</p> <p>2. A contract with a public service corporation fixing rates for service, whether for a definite or indefinite period, has no binding force, when its terms conflict with the rates fixed in the method prescribed by the Public Service Company Law; and this is so even where there has been a limitation by a municipality of the rates to be charged by a public service company, contingent upon the consent of the municipality to the use of its streets.</p> <p>3. The franchises of a street railway company conferred in accordance with Section 9 of Article XVII of the Constitution of Pennsylvania, providing that “no street passenger railway company shall be constructed within the limits of any city, borough or township without the consent of its local authorities,” does not remove the subjects contained therein from the domain of legislative action. A general law, designed to affect all public service corporations, of the State, applies equally to companies operating under ordinances which regulate rates as a condition precedent to the consent of the municipality, or under franchises in which the rates are not so regulated.</p> <p>Constitutional law — Constitution of Pennsylvania — Police power —Constitution of the United States — Impairment of contracts.</p> <p>Section 9 of Article XYII of the Constitution of Pennsylvania, construed in connection with Section 3 of Article XYI of the same Constitution, providing that “the exercise of the police power of the State shall never be abridged or so construed as to permit corporations to conduct