City of Philadelphia v. Thirteenth & Fifteenth Streets Passenger Railway Co.

Citations

• 169 Pa. 269
• 33 A. 126
• 1895 Pa. LEXIS 1089

Syllabus

<p>Street railways — Merger of companies — Franchises and obligations.</p> <p>Where a street railway company is formed by the merger of two other previously existing companies, and the merger is ratified by an act of assembly wherein certain rights existing in the old companies are surrendered and the old franchises confirmed and new ones granted, the company accepts the provisions of the act subject to all the incidents, duties and obligations which attached to the old companies under their charters, and the act incorporating the new company is its operative and controlling charter; but the two original charters so far as unchanged and confirmed by the later act contain its grants and limitations, as well as its burdens and obligations.</p> <p>Charter — Street paving — Ordinances—Replacing old paving with new— Contingent occupancy.</p> <p>In the charter of one of the original companies it was provided, “ That the councils of the city of Philadelphia may from time to time by ordinances establish such regulations in regard to said railway as may be required for the purposes of paving, repaving, grading, .... and the said company shall conform to the grades established by councils of the several streets and avenues traversed by the said railway. . . . The streets thus occupied by said company shall be by them kept in good order and repair at their own proper expense; ” and in the charter of the other of the original companies it was provided, that “ the said company shall be compelled to keep in constant repair that portion of the street which they use and occupy and be subject to such ordinances of councils as relate thereto, not inconsistent with this act.” Held, (1) that both provisions are general, applicable to all streets on which tracks are laid, and continuing, that is, applying from time to time whenever repairs may become necessary; (2) that the franchises to occupy and the obligations to keep in repair are coextensive, and that whatever the duty of a munici