State ex rel. Southern Ind. Gas & Elec. Co. v. Pike Circuit Court, No. 30366

• Docket Nº: No. 30366
• Citation: 192 N.E.2d 320, 244 Ind. 251
• Case Date: September 11, 1963
• Court: Supreme Court of Indiana

Page 320

192 N.E.2d 320 244 Ind. 251 STATE of Indiana on the relation of SOUTHERN INDIANA GAS AND
ELECTRIC COMPANY, Relator,
v.
PIKE CIRCUIT COURT and Lester Nixon, Judge of the Pike
Circuit Court, Respondents. No. 30366. Supreme Court of Indiana. Sept. 11, 1963.

G. R. Redding, John L. Woolling, Indianapolis (Baker & Daniels, Indianapolis, of counsel), Fred P. Bamberger, Evansville (Bamberger, Foreman, Oswald & Hahn, Evansville, of counsel.), for relator.

Lester Nixon, pro se (Ralph P. Zoercher, Tell City, Parr, Parr, Parr & Richey, Lebanon, Cadick, Burns, [244 Ind. 252] Duck & Neighbours, Indianapolis, John K. Chappell, Petersburg, of counsel), for respondents.

MYERS, Chief Justice.

This is an original action filed in this court by Southern Indiana Gas and Electric Company, hereinafter designated as SIGECO, against the Pike Circuit Court and the Hon. Lester Nixon as Judge thereof. The petition seeks a writ of prohibition to restrain the Pike Circuit Court from proceeding further in an alleged attempt to control and decide a cause of action over which another court in Indiana is claimed to have acquired exclusive jurisdiction. Respondents

Page 321

were ordered to show cause why the writ should not be granted. An answer in response has been placed on file by respondents.

The matters and issues presented to us herein are similar and parallel to those which were involved in an action recently decided by us in the case entitled State of Indiana on the Relation of Public Service Company of Indiana, Inc. v. Pike Circuit Court of Pike County, Indiana, and the Honorable Lester Nixon, Judge of Said Court, (1963), Ind., 192 N.E.2d 149. Both suits concern an action commenced in the Pike Circuit Court on May 18, 1962, by Indianapolis Power & Light Company, hereinafter after referred to as IPALCO, to protect alleged rights to use the water from White River in an electric generating plant to be constructed on land owner by IPALCO in Pike County. It was brought against Indiana Statewide Rural Electric Cooperative, Inc., hereinafter referred to as STATEWIDE, and Hoosier Cooperative Energy, Inc., hereinafter referred to as HOOSIER CO-OP, as the owners of an adjoining tract on the river. IPALCO claims that STATEWIDE and HOOSIER CO-OP are proposing to construct a generating plant in a manner which infringes upon [244 Ind. 253] IPALCO's rights. An injunction and declaratory judgment as to priority of rights are sought as relief.

On June 1, 1962, relator...