Ozark-Bell Tel Co. v. City of Springfield, Missouri

• Decision Date: 11 October 1905
• Docket Number: 207.
• Citation: 140 F. 666
• Parties: OZARK-BELL TELEPHONE CO. v. CITY OF SPRINGFIELD, MISSOURI, et al.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Western District of Missouri

140 F. 666

OZARK-BELL TELEPHONE CO. v. CITY OF SPRINGFIELD, MISSOURI, et al.

No. 207.

United States Circuit Court, W.D. Missouri, Southern Division.

October 11, 1905

Sebree & Farrington and Gleed, Ware & Gleed (J. W. Gleed and G. M Sebree, of counsel), for complainant.

A. P Tatlow, City Atty., T. A. Sherwood, and Barber & McDavid (H C. Young & F. M. McDavid, of counsel), for defendants.

MARSHALL District Judge.

The complainant, a telephone company, filed its bill to restrain the city of Springfield, Mo., and its officers from the threatened enforcement of an ordinance enacted by the city council and approved by the mayor, which prescribes maximum rates for the use of telephones within the city of Springfield, and provides that any individual, company, or corporation who shall charge, collect, or receive any sum in excess of the rates so fixed shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction, shall be fined in a sum not less than $50 nor more than $100 for each and every offense. In the bill is averred the incorporation of the complainant; that by ordinance the city council of Springfield duly authorized it to construct, maintain, and operate its telephone lines and exchanges in that city, and its acceptance of the rights so conferred; that, by virtue of said ordinance, it has constructed telephone lines and exchanges in the city, has leased other lines, and has entered on its corporate business; that it is supplying telephone service in the city to 2,050 subscribers, at stated rates fixed by it, which are higher than the maximum rates fixed by the ordinance complained of, but are alleged to be reasonable; that the necessary expense of furnishing telephone service to its Springfield subscribers amounts to $30,000 per annum, and of maintaining in proper condition its plant to $20,000 per annum; that the necessary cost of rent office buildings, insurance, and taxes amounts to $5,000 per annum, aggregating a necessary annual expense for operation and maintenance of its Springfield system of $55,000; that, in addition to this, the complainant pays an annual rental of $3,000 on its leased lines; that the telephone property owned by complainant in the city has cost and is worth $175,000, and the leased property is of the value of $50,000, all of which is necessary for the transaction of the business affected by the ordinance complained of; that the gross revenue now received, and which will be received under the rates fixed by the complainant, as compensation for telephone service to its Springfield subscribers, does not exceed $54,000 per annum; that complainant's net income from all the business not affected by said ordinance does not exceed $3,000 per annum; that section 5835, art. 4, c. 91, of the Revised Statutes of 1899, of Missouri, as amended in 1903, confers on cities of the third class, in which class Springfield is included, the power to fix reasonable maximum rates and charges for the rental and use of telephones and telephone service within such cities, and, under the authority of that section, the city council of Springfield, on September 5, 1905, passed the ordinance in question, which is in the bill set out in full; that the ordinance rates, if enforced, would greatly decrease the complainant's income, and force it to operate its property at a loss, and deny it any profit whatsoever on its investment; that the ordinance thereby violates the fourteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States, in that it takes the complainant's property without due process of law, and denies it the equal protection of the law; that the ordinance 'is in contravention of the fourteenth amendment of the Constitution of the United States and of section 4, art. 2, of the Constitution of the state of Missouri, in that it impairs your orator's freedom of contract, in this: that under said ordinance your orator is deprived of its right to rent its instruments and furnish service at less than the rates named in said ordinance for a limited time, and in that it prevents your orator from renting or contracting for the use of its instruments or the furnishing of its service for a longer period than three months. ' It is further averred that, unless restrained from so doing by this court, the city of Springfield and its officers, the defendants herein, will and have threatened to require the complainant to reduce its rates to an amount not in excess of the ordinance rates, and are threatening to arrest and prosecute the complainant, its officers and employes, unless said rates be so reduced; that complainant's subscribers are numerous, and the charging, collection, or receipt from each of its subscribers of rates in excess of the ordinance rates constitutes unless restrained complainant will be subjected to numerous suits and excessive penalties, and will also be subjected to suits of a civil nature by its subscribers and parties desiring telephone service at the rates prescribed by the ordinance, and that such suits have been threatened; and that, until such ordinance be adjudicated, citizens of the city will refuse to make contracts at complainant's rates, and complainant will suffer irreparable damage. The prayer of the bill is that the maximum rate ordinance be...