NEW YORK V. NEW YORK TELEPHONE CO.
| Decision Date | 12 March 1923 |
| Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
APPEAL FROM THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK
1. In a suit to enjoin enforcement of orders of a state commission respecting telephone rates, upon the ground that the rates are confiscatory, a city with no control over such rates, but interested only indirectly as a subscriber is not a necessary party. P. 315. In re Engelhard & Sons Co., 231 U. S. 646.
2. In such case, where the interests of the city were fully represented through the commission and other officials made parties, application of the city to become a party also was addressed to the district court's discretion, and its order denying the application is not final and appealable. P. 316.
Appeal dismissed.
Appeal from an order of the district court denying appellant's application to be made a party defendant in an injunction suit.
The New York Telephone Company, the appellee herein, filed its bill in the district court against the members of the New York Public Service Commission, the counsel of the commission, and the attorney general of the state, asking an injunction against the enforcement of two orders of the Public Service Commission as to telephone rates, one as to rates in the City of New York and the other as to those in the State of New York, outside of the city, which it alleged to be confiscatory of its property and in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. Thereafter, the City of New York moved the court for an order making it a party defendant in the cause. This order the district court denied. Thereafter, an interlocutory injunction against the orders was granted and an appeal. No. 542, is pending here and has been argued, but not decided. This is a separate appeal from the order refusing the application of the city to be made a party defendant.
Chapter 15 of the Laws of 1922 of the state directs that:
The necessary defendant in the suit to enjoin the orders lowering rates was the Public Service Commission whose orders they were. In addition, the counsel of the commission and the Attorney General were made parties defendant under the legislation above recited. The City of New York has no control over the rates. Its only interest in them is as a subscriber, and even as such its interest in the general rates is not direct, because its own rates are settled by a special contract. Under such circumstances, the city is certainly not a necessary party.
In In re Engelhard, 231 U. S. 646, an action had been brought against the City of Louisville to restrain the enforcement of an ordinance prescribing telephone
rates. One of the subscribers...
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