Brymer v. Butler Water Co.

Citations

• 172 Pa. 489
• 33 A. 707
• 1896 Pa. LEXIS 803

Syllabus

<p>[Marked to be reported.]</p> <p>Water companies — Supply of impure water — Water rents — Equity -Injunction — Act of April 29, 1874, sec. 34.</p> <p>A water company incorporated under the act of April 29,1874, P. L. 93, will be enjoined from collecting water rents where the company has supplied water utterly unlit for domestic use or for steam purposes.</p> <p>It is inequitable that a corporation chartered to serve a public use, and actually undertaking to serve the public with one of the necessaries of life, should be allowed to collect the price of a supply of good water from those to whom it delivers an article that cannot be used, or be made fit for use by any process within their knowledge or reach.</p> <p>A water company is not bound to provide water that is chemically pure, but water that is ordinarily and reasonably pure. After having secured a proper source of supply, the company is bound to exercise diligence in the effort to preserve the water from pollution and to deliver it to the public in no worse condition than that in which it is taken from the source of supply.</p> <p>Where the source of supply of a water company is polluted by upper riparian owners pouring salt water from oil wells into the stream, rendering the water unfit for domestic use or steam purposes, the court can decree that the company shall not collect water rents, but it cannot, if the upper owners have a right to pollute the stream, decree that the company must obtain its supply from some other designated point. In such a case the discretion lies with the company to elect whether it will go out of business, or seek some new and independent source of supply.</p>