Schuylkill Light, Heat & Power Co. v. Public Service Commission

Citations

• 69 Pa. Super. 400
• 1918 Pa. Super. LEXIS 94

Syllabus

<p>Corporations — Light, heat and power companies — Public Service Commission — Jurisdiction—Approval of ordinance.</p> <p>Where a light, heat and power company has applied to the Public Service Commission for the approval of an ordinance granting it rights in a borough, and its application has been refused, it cannot thereafter on appeal be heard to object that the Public Service Commission had no jurisdiction to make the order from which the appeal was taken.</p> <p>The Public Service Commission has jurisdiction under Article III, Section 11, of the Act of July 26, 1913, to approve or disapprove a borough ordinance granting municipal consent to an electric light company to use the streets of the borough.</p> <p>An order of the Public Service Commission dismissing a petition of a light, heat and power company for the approval of a borough ordinance granting it the use of streets will be sustained, where the commission found from sufficient evidence that the plant of a protesting company operating in the borough was adequate, its prices reasonable, and service reasonably satisfactory; that it had operated for many years with municipal acquiescence and assent, although no ordinance had ever expressly granted the privilege; and that it would not be beneficial to the public to grant the petition.</p> <p>In such a ease it is immaterial that the petitioning company was operating in the borough before the passage of the Act of July 26, 1913, P. L. 1374, inasmuch as the order does not affect such operation of the petitioning company. It only refuses to sanction an extension thereof under a borough ordinance.</p>