Rochester Building & Loan Ass'n v. Beaver Valley Water Co.

Citations

• 68 Pa. Super. 122
• 1917 Pa. Super. LEXIS 83

Syllabus

<p>Corporations — Water companies — Rules and regulations — Cutting off service — Notice—Subsequent purchaser — Mandatory preliminary injunction — Public Service Commission — Equity.</p> <p>A purchaser at a sheriff's sale of property from which the water service had been cut off by the water company upon the former owner’s default in paying the water rent, is not entitled to a mandatory preliminary injunction to compel a renewal of the water service, where it appears that the cutting off of the service was in pursuance of a rule or regulation of the company, and that the rules and regulations of the “company had been posted in compliance with the Public Service Act.</p> <p>A municipality or a corporation furnishing water or gas may by ordinance or by-laws make reasonable rules and regulations to assure the payment of bills, among others, that of stopping the supply unless all arrearages are paid, whether owing by the tenant in possession or his predecessors; but they cannot refuse to supply water because of a former owner’s delinquent water rent, unless it appears that the resident had notice that he would be required to pay such bill.</p> <p>The reasonableness of a rule or regulation of a water company requiring a purchaser of a property to pay a former owner’s delinquent water rent before water service is renewed, is a matter purely for the Public Service Commission.</p>