Walla Walla Water Co. v. City of Walla Walla

• Decision Date: 20 March 1894
• Parties: WALLA WALLA WATER CO. v. CITY OF WALLA WALLA et al.
• Court: United States Circuit Court, District of Washington, Southern Division

60 F. 957

WALLA WALLA WATER CO. v. CITY OF WALLA WALLA et al.

United States Circuit Court, D. Washington, Southern Division.

March 20, 1894

George Turner, for complainant.

W. T Dovell and L. C. Gilman, for defendants.

HANFORD District Judge.

The city of Walla Walla is a municipal corporation of the state of Washington, having a charter granted to it by a special act of the legislature of the territory of Washington in the year 1883 (Laws Wash. T. 1883, p. 270). The powers conferred upon the city by said charter include the following:

'Sec 4. The city of Walla Walla shall have power * * * to provide fire engines and other apparatus and a sufficient supply of water, and to levy and collect special taxes for these purposes, not to exceed in any year three-tenths of one per centum upon the taxable property within the city.' 'Sec. 10. The city of Walla Walla is hereby authorized to grant the right to use the streets of said city for the purpose of laying gas and other pipes intended to furnish the inhabitants of said city with light, or water to any persons or association of persons for a term not exceeding twenty-five years: * * * provided, always, that none of the rights or privileges same rights to others. Sec. 11. The city of Walla Walla shall have power to erect and maintain water works within or without the city limits or to authorize the erection of the same for the purpose of furnishing the city or the inhabitants thereof with a sufficient supply of water, * * * and to enact all ordinances and regulations necessary to carry the power herein conferred into effect, but no water works shall be erected by the city until a majority of the voters, who shall be those only who are freeholders in the city, or pay a property tax therein, on not less than five hundred dollars' worth, of property, shall at a general or special election vote for the same. Sec. 12. Said city is hereby authorized and empowered to condemn and appropriate so much private property as shall be necessary for the construction and operation of such water works and shall have power to purchase or condemn water works already erected, or which may be erected, and may mortgage or hypothecate the same to secure to the persons from whom the same may be purchased the payment of the purchase price thereof. 'Sec. 103. The rights, powers and duties and liabilities of the city of Walla Walla and of its several officers shall be those prescribed in this act and none others, and this is hereby declared a public act.' 'Sec. 105. The limit of indebtedness of the city of Walla Walla is hereby fixed at fifty thousand dollars.'

The bill of complaint alleges that, in the year 1887, the city, pursuant to an ordinance authorizing the same, entered into a contract with the complainant, whereby the complainant was authorized to lay pipes for conducting water in the streets of the city, and to supply the inhabitants with water, and the complainant undertook to supply water for use of the city in extinguishing fires, flushing sewers, and all other municipal purposes for a period of 25 years. The contract also contains the following provisions:

'The city of Walla Walla shall have the right to erect in a proper and workmanlike manner, and maintain at its own expense, in such manner as to prevent leakage, as many fire hydrants on the mains of the water company as it shall see fit, not exceeding one (1) at each street intersection; and, in case of fire, the city, through its officers and employés, shall have all reasonable and necessary control of the water company's water, mains, and reservoirs for the extinguishment thereof, and, for the purpose of drilling fire companies, may use such water as may be necessary therefor, not oftener than once in two (2) weeks for each fire company; and the city may also use such water as may be necessary and convenient in and about its engine houses and other city buildings, and to supply any and all city fire cisterns. The city of Walla Walla agrees to pay to said Walla Walla Water Company for the matters and things above enumerated, quarter yearly, on the 1st days of July, October, January, and April of each year, at the rate of fifteen hundred dollars ($1,500) per annum, for the period of twenty-five (25) years, from and after the date and passage of Ordinance Number 270, the first quarterly payment to be made on the 1st day of October next (October 1, 1887).

'The city of Walla Walla will during said period, without expense for water, be allowed to flush any sewer or sewers it may hereafter construct, at such time during the day or night as the water company may determine, and under the direction and supervision of such officers as the city may from time to time designate,

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