Relief Electric Light, Heat & Power Company's Petition

Citations

• 63 Pa. Super. 1
• 1916 Pa. Super. LEXIS 89

Syllabus

<p>•, . Constitutional law — Police power — Pennsylvania Public Service Commission — Act of July 86,1918, P. L. 181k-</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 a certificate of public convenience to a light, heat and power company to occupy the streets of a borough, although the borough authorities have consented to such use, will be sustained where it appears that another company was serving the borough satisfactorily at fair and reasonable rates; and especially will such order be upheld where it appears that the second company had not recorded its charter in the county where its business was to be transacted, prior to the passage of the Public Service Commission Act, and that at the time it applied for the certificate it had not complied with Section 2 of the Act of May. 16, 1889, P. L. 228, which re* quires such corporations in good faith to carry on their work and construct or acquire their necessary building, etc., within a space of two years from the date of their letters patent.</p>