State ex rel. Spokane & British Columbia Telephone & Telegraph Co. v. City of Spokane

Citations

• 24 Wash. 53
• 63 P. 1116
• 1901 Wash. LEXIS 493

Syllabus

<p>CONSTITUTIONAL LAW-EXCLUSIVE PRIVILEGES.</p> <p>Where a municipality has not by ordinance or contract attempted to give an exclusive right to the use of its streets to a telephone company to whom it had granted an easement therein, its refusal to grant the same rights to another telephone company, under its charter (Bal. Code, §739, subd. 7), empowering it to authorize or prohibit the use of electricity in or upon any of its streets, would, not raise any question as to the violation of art. 1, § 12, of the state constitution, which provides that “No law shall be passed granting to any citizen, class of citizens, or corporation other than municipal, ¿privileges or immunities which, upon the same terms, shall not equally belong to all citizens or corporations.”</p> <p>SAME-SELF-EXECUTING PROVISIONS.</p> <p>Art. 12, § 19, of the state constitution, which declares the right of any corporation or individual to construct and maintain lines of telegraph and telephone upon the streets and highways within the state, that such lines shall be common carriers, and that the right of eminent domain is extended to them, is not self-operative, but by its own terms imposes the duty on the legislature of providing by general law reasonable regulations to give effect to the section, and hence confers no power to use the streets and highways other than as the legislature may provide.</p> <p>MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS-USE OF STREETS BY TELEPHONE LINES —- POWER OF CITY TO REFUSE-CONSTRUCTION OF STATUTE.</p> <p>There being no restriction on the legislative control of streets and highways contained in art. 12, § 19, of the constitution, which declares the right of individuals and corporations to maintain lines of telegraph and telephone within the state, the provision in Bal. Code, § 4369, the statute passed pursuant to such constitutional declaration, “that where the right-of-way, as herein contemplated, is within the corporate limits of any incorporated city, the consent of the city counc