Holst v. Savannah Electric Co.

Citations

• 131 F. 931
• 1904 U.S. App. LEXIS 4964

Syllabus

<p>1. Municipal Corporations — Powers of Council — Granting of Street Franchise by Resolution.</p> <p>Tile mayor and council of the city of Savannah, Ga., are authorized by the city’s charter (MacDonell’s Code, p. 12, § 32) to make, ordain, and establish “by-laws, ordinances, rules and regulations,” but nowhere, in terms, to legislate by resolution; and in view of cognate provisions requiring the improvement of streets, regulating the speed of street cars, etc., to be by ordinance, and of section 44, which provides that the city-may either build street railways, “or let or farm the privilege to individuals or companies under the conditions and at such rates of fare and other charges as the city council of said city may by ordinance determine,” the mayor and council have no power to grant a franchise to a street railroad company to occupy a street with its tracks by a resolution, and such a resolution passed without notice to owners of property on the street affected, and without prior publication as required by the charter in ease of ordinances, is void and confers on the company no right or authority.</p> <p>2. Constitutional Law — Taking Property without Compensation.</p> <p>The owners of property fronting on a street may maintain a suit in equity in a federal court against the city and a street railroad company, both of which are corporations of the state, to enjoin the laying of tracks in the street under a void enactment by the city council purporting to authorize such act, where irreparable injury will result to their property, as a taking of property under color of authority from the state without due process of law.</p> <p>3. Equity Jurisdiction — Preventing Multiplicity op Suits — Adequate Remedy at Law.</p> <p>Such suit is within the jurisdiction of equity, where the complainants are numerous, on the ground that it will prevent a multiplicity of actions, and for the further reason that there is no adequate remedy at law.</p> <p>4. Injunction — Use op Stree