Commonwealth ex rel. Attorney General v. Consumers' Gas Co.

Citations

• 214 Pa. 72
• 63 A. 463
• 1906 Pa. LEXIS 599

Syllabus

<p>Corporations — Gas companies — Exclusive privileges — Act of April 29, 1874, sec. 34, clause 3, P. L. 73.</p> <p>A gas company incorporated under the Act of April 29, 1874, sec. 34, clause 3, P. L. 73, has against all subsequent incorporated gas companies, an exclusive privilege until it has earned and distributed for five years a dividend of eight per cent on the capital stock, and this is the case although there is in existence a previously incorporated company having the right to supply gas in the same territory.</p> <p>Where the charter of a gas company specifies a county within which the company may exercise its franchises; the charter is not wholly void because of the existence of a city within the county, within whose limits the company cannot exercise its franchises by reason of the. existence of a previously incorporated company with exclusive rights, as against the later company, to supply gas within the city limits.</p> <p>Brown, Mestrezat and Potter, JJ., dissent.</p>