State ex rel. Olympia v. Olympia Light & Power Co.

Citations

• 91 Wash. 519
• 158 P. 85
• 1916 Wash. LEXIS 1087

Syllabus

<p>Street Railroads — Franchise—Alteration. Laws 1889-90, p. 183, § 117, giving municipal corporations power to grant franchises for the use of their streets confers no authority for the alteration of such franchises subsequent to their grant so as to impose additional obligations on the holder in the matter of street paving differing from the conditions of the franchise contract.</p> <p>Street Railroads — Police Power — Street Paving. The police power authorizing a municipality to require a street railway company to keep its tracks in safe condition for the public welfare cannot be extended so as to require the company at its own expense to pave with other material than that laid by it under its franchise contract.</p> <p>Street Railroads — Paving — Municipal Powers. Cities of the third class are without delegated power, in the absence of express statute, to require railway companies that have constructed their tracks and are operating cars thereon to pave or improve any part of the street on which they are laid.</p> <p>Street Railroads — Franchises — Paving Requirements. Under ordinance No. 397 of the city of Olympia granting a franchise to a street railway company to lay its tracks in the city streets and plank within the rails and for eighteen inches outside the rails, with the option of adopting such pavement of a permanent character as the city may employ in paving the street, the city has no power to require the company to pave with other material than planking, notwithstanding a provision of the ordinance reserving to the city the right to amend or alter the franchise, “having due regard for the vested rights” of the grantee.</p> <p>Street Railroads — -Paving—Construction op Franchise. Under an ordinance granting an extension of a street railway franchise over a portion of the street theretofore not included, and providing that the grantee “shall maintain such paving between the rails of the railway and to a distance of eighteen inches on each side of the sa