Sunset Telephone & Telegraph Co. v. City of Medford

Citations

• 115 F. 202
• 1902 U.S. App. LEXIS 4922

Syllabus

<p>1. Licenses — Fees—Taxation.</p> <p>An ordinance providing that a telephone company shall not occupy streets without paying an annual license of $100 is a revenue provision (the fee being manifestly substantially in excess of enough to defray expense of issuing license and maintaining the regulation), and not authorized by a charter provision that the council may license telephone companies using the streets, and fix the compensation they shall annually pay for such license.</p> <p>3. Telephone Companies — Use of Streets — New Conditions.</p> <p>Where a telephone company has the right to use the streets of a city by permission of its officers, the city cannot, after the company has accepted the grant and established its plant, add a new condition, — that it pay for the use of the streets.</p>