City of Los Angeles v. Los Angeles Gas Electric Corporation

• Decision Date: 08 December 1919
• Docket Number: No. 50,50
• Citation: 40 S.Ct. 76,64 L.Ed. 121,251 U.S. 32
• Parties: CITY OF LOS ANGELES et al. v. LOS ANGELES GAS & ELECTRIC CORPORATION
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

251 U.S. 32

40 S.Ct. 76

64 L.Ed. 121

CITY OF LOS ANGELES et al.

v LOS ANGELES GAS & ELECTRIC CORPORATION.

No. 50.

Argued Oct. 23, 1919.

Decided Dec. 8, 1919.

Mr. W. B. Mathews, of Los Angeles, Cal., for appellants.

Messrs. Paul Overton and Herbert J. Goudge, both of Los Angeles, Cal., for appellee.

Mr. Justice McKENNA delivered the opinion of the Court.

The appellant city is a municipal corporation of the State of California and the other appellants are its officers, having official relation to it and its rights and powers.

The appellee is a California corporation invested with and in exercise of a franchise for generating and selling electricity through a system of poles and wires and other works in the public streets of Los Angeles, among others, in that known as York Boulevard.

It, the appellee—to which we shall refer as the corporation brought this suit in the District Court to declare invalid and restrain the execution of an ordinance of the city providing for a municipal electric street-lighting system and making way for it in such way, it is charged, that it obstructed, trespassed upon and made dangerous the system of the corporation in violation of its rights under the Constitution of the United States.

The District Court granted the prayer of the bill upon the grounds relied on and hence the appeal from its decision direct to this Court.

The ordinance attacked is very long by reason of its repetitions. It, however, can be intelligibly reduced to a few provisions. It was passed March 6, 1917, and approved the next day, and declares in its title its purpose to be to provide for the removal and relocation of poles and other property in the public streets of the city 'when necessary in order that the municipal electrical street lighting system may be constructed, operated and maintained.' Such system and its installation 'as speedily as may be practicable' is declared necessary 'for the public peace, health and safety.'

It is recited that certain 'fixtures, appliances and structures' (they are enumerated) are maintained in the streets and it is necessary 'in order that sufficient space may be secured for the said municipal electrical system * * * and that the work of constructing and establishing the same may be carried on, to provide for the removal or relocation of poles and other properties so maintained by such persons and corporations.'

It is therefore ordained that (section 1) whenever it shall appear to the Board of Public Works that the removal or relocation kof such 'fixtures, appliances or structures' (there is an enumeration again which we omit as useless repetition) is necessary in order of such 'fixtures, appliances or structures' the Board shall give notice to the person, firm or corporation owning or controlling the property to remove or relocate the same. The notice to designate the property to be removed and the place to which it shall be removed, and it shall be the duty of such person, firm or corporation to comply with the notice within five days of its receipt. To fail or refuse to so comply or to diligently prosecute the work of removal is made unlawful (sections 2 and 3) and (section 4) made a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of not more than $500 or by imprisonment in the city jail for a period of not more than six months, or by both such fine and imprisonment. Each day's delay is made a separate offense.

In case of failure to remove or prosecute the work of removal the Board of Public Works is given power to do what the notice directs. (Section 5.)

By section 6 the dependency of the city upon private contracts for lighting the public streets and other public places is declared, some of which contracts, it is said, have expired and all will have expired by July, 1917, thus making the completion of the municipal system necessary to provide for lighting the streets without interruption and the removal or relocation of the appliances owned or controlled by various persons, firms or corporations immediately necessary in order that the city may complete and install its system. And it is declared that the 'ordinance is urgently required for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health and safety.'

The ordinance was preceded by acts of interference by the city with the property of the corporation in other streets and also in York Boulevard, which interference was enjoined by interlocutory and final decree by the Superior Court of Los Angeles County in a suit brought by the corporation—the city not defending. And it was interference, not displacement, and the court's decree was adapted to the extent of the interference. The decree as to other streets than York Boulevard was as follows:

'* * * From in any manner trespassing upon, interfering with, moving or displacing the poles or wires, or either or any of them, owned or controlled wholly or in part by plaintiff [the corporation in this case]; or erecting or placing any pole, cross-arm or other electrical appliance or equipment or attaching any wire or cable to or upon any pole, cross-arm or other electrical appliance or equipment in a fixed position within the distance from any pole, cross-arm, wire or other electrical appliances or equipment owned or controlled wholly or in part by plaintiff [the corporation in this case], as prescribed by the laws of the State of California and the rules and regulations of the Railroad Commission of said State. * * *'

As to York Boulevard the decree was as follows:

'* * * From conveying, running or transmitting electric power or energy through the lines and wires heretofore erected and constructed, by said City of Los Angeles, its agents, servants and employes,' until the wires, poles, and equipment of the city are removed to the distance 'prescribed by the laws of the State of California and the rules and regulations of the Railroad Commission thereof.'

The decree contained a provision upon which the city bases a contention, or rather a suggestion, to which we shall presently refer. The provision is as follows:

'Nothing herein contained shall be construed as prohibiting or restraining the City of Los Angeles or its proper boards, officers or agents from carrying into effect any ordinance of said city providing for the removal or relocation of poles, anchors, cross-arms, wires, street lamps or other fixtures, appliances or structures owned or controlled by said plaintiff [the corporation in this case] and located in, upon, over or under any public street or other public place of said city.'

The ground or basis of the ordinance of March 6, 1917, here involved is the same as that of the interference in the suit in the state court, that is, the right to displace the corporation's property in order that the municipal system may be operated or erected. There is no attempt here, as there was...