Water, Light & Gas Co. of Hutchinson v. City of Hutchinson

Citations

• 207 U.S. 385
• 28 S. Ct. 135
• 52 L. Ed. 257
• 1907 U.S. LEXIS 1233

Syllabus

<p>A grant conferring a privilege is not necessarily a grant making that privilege exclusive.</p> <p>Grants by the State to municipal corporations, like grants to private corporations, are to be strictly construed, and the power to grant an exclusive privilege must be expressly given, or, if inferred from other powers, must be indispensable, and not merely convenient, to them. Citizens’ Street Railway v. Detroit, 171 U. S. 48.</p> <p>The Kansas statutes for' the government of cities, as construed by the highest court of that State, do not confer on cities of the second class the power to grant exclusive franchises and, in the absence of such power expressly conferred, the exclusive features of an ordinance of such a city granting an exclusive franchise are invalid. Vicksburg v. Waterworks Co'., 206 U. S. 496, distinguished.</p>