Gas Company v. Pittsburgh

• Decision Date: 01 October 1879
• Citation: 25 L.Ed. 789,101 U.S. 219
• Parties: GAS COMPANY v. PITTSBURGH
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

101 U.S. 219

101 U.S. 219

25 L.Ed. 789

GAS COMPANY v. PITTSBURGH.

October Term, 1879

ERROR to the Supreme Court of the State of Pennsylvania.

This was a suit brought by the Pittsburgh Gas Company against the city of Pittsburgh, to recover certain moneys paid by the company to the United States.

That company was incorporated by an act of the legislature of Pennsylvania, approved March 16, 1848, the city of Pittsburgh being the owner of six hundred and ninety-eight shares, of the value of fifty dollars each, and having power to elect six of the twelve trustees of said company. A supplement to said act, approved Jan. 31, 1860, provided as follows, viz.:——

'SECT. 7. That whenever the provisions of this act shall have been accepted by the stockholders of said company and the councils of said city corporation, as hereinafter provided, the mayor, aldermen, and citizens of Pittsburgh shall forthwith cease to be stockholders in said company, and all the stock held by the city corporation or standing in its name on the books of the said company shall be surrendered to the company, and the said city corporation shall have no further right to or interest in said stock; but the same shall become a part of the the funds of the company, and be distributed among the stockholders pro rata.

'SECT. 8. That the said company shall, at the cost of the city corporation, construct, erect, and keep in order all such public lamps and burners in the streets as the city councils may direct, and shall also furnish all the gas required for consumption in the public street-lamps, market-houses, council-chambers, and public offices of the city, at the following rates, that is to say: Any quantity not exceeding twelve and one-half millions cubic feet of gas annually, free of charge, and any excess over that quantity that may be required annually at a rate not exceeding seventy-five cents for each one thousand cubic feet of gas in such excess. The price of such excess so furnished, together with the cost of constructing erecting, and keeping in order the public lamps and burners in the streets, shall be paid to the company quarterly by the city corporation.'

In pursuance of said act the councils of the City of Pittsburgh, on the third day of February, 1860, passed an ordinance as follows:——

'That the provisions of an act of assembly approved the thirty-first day of January, A.D. one thousand eight hundred and sixty, entitled 'A supplement to an act to incorporate the Pittsburgh Gas Company,' approved the sixteenth day of March, A.D. one thousand eight hundred and forty-eight, be and the same are hereby approved and accepted by the councils of said city, and that a copy of this ordinance, properly authenticated by the presidents and clerks of councils, be delivered to the said gas company, and the mayor of the city of Pittsburgh is hereby authorized and instructed to make a proper surrender to the Pittsburgh Gas Company of all interest and ownership of said city in any stock or other property and effects in said gas company. That all ordinances or parts of ordinances inconsistent herewith be and the same are hereby repealed.'

Pursuant to said act and ordinance, the mayor of said city made and executed a surrender of its stock, which was...