Monessen Borough v. Central District & Printing Telegraph Co.

Citations

• 51 Pa. Super. 452
• 1912 Pa. Super. LEXIS 242

Syllabus

<p>Telegraph and telephone companies — License tax — Findings of fact of the court — Inspection—Act of April 17, 1905, P. L. 183.</p> <p>1. In a proceeding under the Act of April 17, 1905, P. L. 183, to determine the reasonableness of a license tax imposed by a municipality upon telegraph or telephone companies, the findings of fact of the court have the same conclusive force as the verdict of a jury, and the appellate court will not disturb them, except in cases of flagrant and manifest error.</p> <p>2. In a proceeding under the Act of April 17, 1905, P. L. 183, to settle a dispute between a municipality and a public service corporation as to the reasonableness óf a license fee for the inspection and regulation of poles and wires in the streets, the trial judge may take into consideration as bearing upon the necessity of frequent and careful inspection by the municipality, the fact that certain of the streets were subject to frequent overflow from a river, that others were on slopes of hills and subject to landslides, and that still others were crowded with the wires of street car lines, electric light and power companies and telegraph and telephone companies. In such a case a finding that two inspections a year was wholly insufficient is a proper finding.</p> <p>3. It is not necessary for a municipality to maintain a separate and distinct organization for the purpose of inspecting, regulating and supervising the lines of a public service corporation, in order to sustain a charge imposed under the police power to reimburse it .for expenditures involved.</p> <p>4. Where a borough requires each member of its polic'e force to make constant visual inspection of poles and wires, and the borough engineer and street commissioner devote a portion of their time to such inspection, and the peculiar formation of the land on which the borough is located requires frequent and careful inspection of poles and wires, a charge of a license tax of $174 per year or at the rate of fif