New York & Pennsylvania Telephone & Telegraph Co. v. Borough

Citations

• 49 Pa. Super. 46
• 1912 Pa. Super. LEXIS 282

Syllabus

<p>Telegraph and telephone companies — License tax — Inspection—Costs of inspection — Act of April 17,1905, P. L. 183 — Boroughs.</p> <p>1. Under the Act of April 17, 1905, P. L. 183, relating to license fees imposed by municipalities upon public service corporations which have poles, wires, conduits or cables in the public streets, the court, in determining the amount of the annual license fees that may be properly charged, is controlled by the cost of inspection and regulation to the municipality.</p> <p>2. Proceedings under the Act of April 17, 1905, P. L. 183, are de novo, and it is the duty of the court to hear and determine the questions involved upon the pleadings having due regard to the weight of the evidence. There is in such a case no burden upon the petitioner to produce evidence establishing that the ordinance is unreasonable. The court is to exercise its own discretion, and not to pass upon the question whether there has been a flagrant and obvious abuse of discretion by the officers of the municipality.</p> <p>3. In a proceeding under the Act of April 17, 1905, P. L. 183, a license fee of thirty cents for each pole, and $1.00 per mile for wire, is a proper charge, where it appears that there are 503 poles and twelve and seven-tenths miles of wire within the borough; and that the sum of $160.50 will fully cover all the cost to the borough of the direct inspection, general supervision and making of reports by the single policeman and the single street commissioner of the borough, together with a reasonable allowance for unforeseen contingencies.</p> <p>4. Where a telegraph and telephone company makes no physical inspection of its poles and wires in a borough, the borough is entitled to make more numerous inspections and charge for the same than would be necessary if the company itself made inspections.</p>