State ex rel. Southern Ind. Gas & Elec. Co. v. Pike Circuit Court, 30366
| Decision Date | 11 September 1963 |
| Docket Number | No. 30366,30366 |
| Citation | 192 N.E.2d 320,244 Ind. 251 |
| Parties | 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. |
| Court | Indiana Supreme Court |
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, Duck & Neighbours, Indianapolis, John K. Chappell, Petersburg, of counsel), for respondents.
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 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 IPALCO's rights. An injunction and declaratory judgment as to priority of rights are sought as relief.
On June 1, 1962, relator herein filed suit in the Superior Court of Marion County seeking to protect certain rights it claims in respect to its franchised electric utility territory. An injunction was asked against STATEWIDE to prevent it from constructing and operating an electric utility generating plant and selling electricity in any part of the territory belonging to relator unless properly authorized to do so by the Public Service Commission of Indiana and other authorities. A similar suit was brought by the Public Service Company of...
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