Jenkins Township v. Public Service Commission

Citations

• 65 Pa. Super. 122
• 1916 Pa. Super. LEXIS 30

Syllabus

<p>Appeals — Assignments of error — Order of Public Service Commission.</p> <p>On an appeal from an order of the Public Service Commission, the order must be assigned for error and quoted in the assignment.</p> <p>In all such appeals the assignments must conform with the rules of the Superior Court. They must be self-sustaining and embody everything necessary to their determination in that court. A mere reference by page number to some part of the record essential to the assignment, or a general statement by counsel of the necessary elements of the assignment which does not embody the specific action of the commission will not be sufficient.</p> <p>Public Service Commission — Jurisdiction—Approval of municipal contract — Light, heat and ■power company — Corporations— Contract — Charter—Act of July 26,1918, P. L. 187k — Police power.</p> <p>The Public Service Commission Act of July 26,1913, P. L. 1374, is a proper exercise of the police power of the State and is constitutional.</p> <p>Grants of franchises to public service corporations are made and accepted in subordination to the police power of the State, which cannot be bargained away by the legislature.</p> <p>The fact that a light, heat and power company has secured the consent of borough authorities to the use of the borough streets, does not relieve it from the necessity of securing a certificate of public convenience from the Public Service Commission; and if such certificate is denied it cannot complain that it has been deprived of its property without due process of law, or that the order of the commission is an impairment of the obligation of a contract.</p> <p>An order of the Public Service Commission refusing to grant to a light, heat and power company a certificate of public convenience and refusing to approve a contract with a borough, will be sustained, where it appears that the company in question had but a small capital, that it had not proceeded in good faith to carry on its work and construct its