People ex rel. Maybury v. Mutual Gas-Light Co. of Detroit
| Decision Date | 15 January 1878 |
| Citation | 38 Mich. 154 |
| Court | Michigan Supreme Court |
| Parties | The People ex rel. William C. Maybury v. The Mutual Gas-Light Company of Detroit |
Submitted January 8, 1878
Application for leave to file an information in the nature of a quo warranto.
Application denied.
F. A Baker and E. F. Conely for the application.
Ashley Pond against.
Leave is asked to file an information in the nature of a quo warranto to deprive the respondent of the franchise, as it is claimed to be, of laying its gas pipes and distributing gas through the streets of Detroit. The ground of the application is that the company has violated some of the terms of an agreement imposing conditions against making combinations with other companies and doing certain other acts, regarded by the city of Detroit as important conditions of its assent to allowing the respondent to use its privileges within the city.
The statute providing for the incorporation of gas companies allows them to lay pipes through the streets, lanes and squares of any city, town or village where they are located "with the consent of the municipal authorities of said city, town, or village, under such reasonable regulations as they may prescribe." The statutes do not allow an information in such cases as this is claimed to be, to be filed without leave, and they contemplate that leave shall only be granted for a plain violation of the laws regulating the corporation, or wrongs amounting to a surrender of its franchises, or "whenever it shall exercise any franchise or privilege not conferred upon it by law." Comp. L., § 7085.
The statute contemplates the punishment of corporations for nothing but violations of the laws and policy of the State. In the present instance the State has shown by the incorporating act that public policy is not opposed to and is in favor of allowing gas companies to exist, as they only can exist by having power to lay their pipes. The consent of the municipal corporation is required because the terms on which streets may be safely allowed to be occupied for the purposes of laying gas pipes can be best determined by leaving the regulation to be harmonized with all other exigencies by the authorities controlling their use. The law contemplates that permission will not be unreasonably refused or unreasonably burdened, but regards the municipality as competent to determine the proper conditions for itself.
The...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
State ex inf. Crow v. Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Company
... ... State v. Taylor, 25 Ohio St. 279; People v ... Board of Education, 101 Ill. 308; State ... 612; State v. Mil ... Gas Light Co., 29 Wis. 454. "Information in the ... Private Corporations, sec. 58; State ex rel. v ... Meek, 129 Mo. 436; Ramsey v. Carhart, ... ...
-
The State ex rel. National Subway Company v. St. Louis
...York v. Squire, 145 U.S. 182; New Orleans Waterworks Co. v. La. Sugar Co., 125 U.S. 32; Detroit v. Railroad, 56 F. 881; People v. Mutual Gas Light Co., 38 Mich. 154; People v. Ferry Co., 92 Mich. 522; Foundry & Pipe Works v. Oconte Water Co., 52 F. 29; Africa v. Knoxville Co., 70 F. 733; Ra......
-
Grand Rapids, E.L. & P. Co. v. Grand Rapids, E.E.L. & F.G. Co.
...give the power claimed, and could do so by the agency of a municipal corporation, (State v. Gas-Light Co., 18 Ohio St. 293; Maybury v. Gas-Light Co., 38 Mich. 154; v. Charleston, 96 U.S. 440;) either by express terms, or by direct and necessary implication, (State v. Gas-Light Co., 18 Ohio ......
-
TCG Detroit v. City of Dearborn
...the city loses all power except as is "strictly referable" to the reasonable control of the streets. In People ex rel Maybury v. Mut. Gas-Light Co. of Detroit, 38 Mich. 154 (1878), a case arising before the constitutional provision was adopted, the city sought to file a quo warranto proceed......