Blair v. Manchester Water Works
| Decision Date | 30 November 1961 |
| Citation | 103 N.H. 505,175 A.2d 525 |
| Parties | , 42 P.U.R.3d 237 Donald BLAIR and Albert Savoie v. MANCHESTER WATER WORKS |
| Court | New Hampshire Supreme Court |
Alexander J. Kalinski, Manchester (by brief and orally), for the plaintiff Albert Savoie.
J. Francis Roche, City Solicitor, Manchester (by brief and orally), for the defendant.
The question to be decided in this case is whether a municipally owned water works may be compelled to extend its service to an adjoining town in an area therein where it has not previously supplied water. This question is not a constitutional one nor one of public policy but rather one of statutory interpretation. If the Public Utilities Commission has the power to make such an order the merits of the case will be determined at a subsequent hearing but if there is no statutory authority for the Commission to hear the matter, the plaintiffs' petition must be dismissed. Kneier, State Supervision Over Municipally Owned Utilities, 49 Col.L.Rev. 180; Fordham, Local Government Law, 823 (1949); Rhyne, Municipal Law 499 (1957).
By its charter the city of Manchester is authorized to contract, maintain and own its water works '* * * for the use of the citizens of said city and for the use of the citizens of outlying towns and districts.' Laws 1871, 70:1; Laws 1935, 323:1; Chicopee Mfg. Corporation v. Manchester, 97 N.H. 109, 111, 81 A.2d 837. The authority of the Public Utilities Commission over extensions and service by public utilities is broad (RSA 374:7, 22) but its authority is limited by the express provisions of the public utility law and those that may be fairly implied therefrom. Petition of Boston & Maine Railroad, 82 N.H. 116, 129 A. 880; State v. New Hampshire Gas & Electric Co., 86 N.H. 16, 28, 163 A. 724; State v. New Eng. Tel. & Tel. Co., 103 N.H. 394. Thus '* * * municipal corporations operating within their corporate limits' are exempted from the definition of a public utility (RSA 362:2) but another statute provides that a municipality operating 'outside its own limits' is subject to the jurisdiction of the Public Utilities Commission. RSA 38:12.
While the city of Manchester has extended its service into a precisely limited area in the adjoining town of Bedford, it has not by contract, dedication or authority of the Public Utilities Commission sought to hold itself out as a public utility in the entire area of the town of Bedford. While statutory variations make it difficult to formulate any general rule, an examination of the authorities in this field indicates that there is no obligation on a municipal water system to extend its service outside its corporate limits in the absence of compelling reasons to do so. Annot. 48 A.L.R.2d 1222, 1230; 12 McQuillin, Municipal Corporations (3d ed.1950) § 34.194; Mongiello v. Borough of Hightstown, 17 N.J. 611, 112 A.2d 241, 48 A.L.R.2d 1216.
There is indication that the statutes regulating municipally owned water works were intended to place a primary duty to furnish water to the residents of the municipality and that any right to furnish water to nonresidents in adjoining towns and districts is secondary. The argument is made that by extending its services into the town of Bedford it has placed itself in a position of extending service to anyone in that town if the Public Utilities Commission should so...
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Appeal of Public Service Co. of New Hampshire (New Hampshire Public Utilities Com'n)
...PSNH's service territories. The scope of our review is correspondingly narrow. See Sup.Ct.R. 16(3)(b); Blair v. Manchester Water Works, 103 N.H. 505, 506, 175 A.2d 525, 526 (1961). Several parties have urged us to hold, in the interests of judicial economy, that PSNH has waived its rights t......
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Allied New Hampshire Gas Co. v. Tri-State Gas & Supply Co.
...question is not a constitutional one nor one of public policy but rather one of statutory interpretation.' Blair v. Manchester Water Works, 103 N.H. 505, 506, 175 A.2d 525, 526. In pertinent part RSA 362:2 reads as follows: 'The term public utility shall include every corporation * * * owni......
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Mayor and Council of Rockville v. Goldberg
...service. A holding consonant with Powles, and in keeping with our view of the instant case, is found in Blair v. Manchester Water Works, 103 N.H. 505, 175 A.2d 525 (1961), wherein Chief Justice Kenison writing for the Court '* * * The argument is made that by extending its services into the......
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Fraccola v. City of Utica Bd. of Water Supply
...410 (Ct. App. 1969); Bair v. Mayor & City Council of Westminster, 243 Md. 494, 221 A.2d 643 (Ct. App. 1966); Blair v. Manchester Water Works, 103 N.H. 505, 175 A.2d 525 (1961). We cannot conclude that the petition fails to state any basis for Judgment reversed with costs and motion denied. ......