Williamsport Pass. Ry. Co. v. Williamsport

Citations

• 120 Pa. 1
• 13 A. 496
• 1888 Pa. LEXIS 452

Syllabus

<p>A street passenger railway company incorporated in 1863, with nothing in its charter making the consent of councils a prerequisite to the exorcise of its powers in the extension of its road, prior to 1874 had constructed and operated its road in but a few of the streets it was authorized by its charter to occupy. In 1887, being about to extend its tracks into the unoccupied streets, the city filed a hill for an injunction on the ground that the consent of councils had not been obtained: Held,</p> <p>1. That the fourth constitutional amendment of 1857, providing power in the legislature to alter, revoke or annul any incorporating charter thereafter conferred, gave no arbitrary power to repeal such charters at will, and even where a moving cause was made to appear, such alteration and revocation must be so made that no injustice should be done to the corporators: Hays v. Commonwealth, 82 Pa. 523, approved.</p> <p>2. That the unrestricted right of the company to lay its tracks in the streets authorized by its charter, was not repealed by § 9, article XVII., of the constitution of 1874, and § 16, act of May 23, 1878, P. L. Ill, providing that no street passenger railway should be constructed within the limits of any city, borough or township,without the consent of the local authorities thereof.</p> <p>3. Charters of private corporations are left exactly as the new constitution found them, and so they must remain until the companies holding them shall enter into a new contract with the state by accepting the benefit of some future legislation: Hays v. Commonwealth, 82 Pa. 523.</p>