Wiemer v. Louisville Water Co.
| Decision Date | 19 March 1903 |
| Citation | 130 F. 246 |
| Parties | WIEMER v. LOUISVILLE WATER CO. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Western District of Kentucky |
The bill of complaint is as follows:
To the Honorable the Judges of the Circuit Court of the United States in and for the Sixth Circuit and Western District of Kentucky:
Robert Wiemer, of the city of New Albany, and a citizen of the state of Indiana, brings this, his bill, against the Louisville Water Company, a body corporate, organized and existing at and during all the times hereinafter mentioned under the laws of the state of Kentucky, having its chief office and place of business in the city of Louisville, and is a citizen of the state of Kentucky, and thereupon your orator complains and says he has for more than a year last past traded and done business under the name and style of the Louisville Sprinkling Company; that his said business is now, and has been for a year past continuously, that of sprinkling the streets and public ways of the city of Louisville in front of the lots, residences, and houses of such persons as employ him to do so and pay him therefor the contract price for such service; that he has invested a large amount of money in the purchase, and that he now has on hand a large number of carts constructed and built at great expense for the purpose of sprinkling such streets, and which are valuable and useful only for such purpose, and cannot be made and are not valuable or useful for any other purpose; that at great expense he has equipped said carts with the harness and furniture necessary for their use in the business aforesaid and that such harness, furniture, and equipments, as above mentioned, used in connection with said sprinkling carts, are valuable and useful in such service, but are practically of no value-- of no service-- in any other business; that in the acquisition and purchase of such sprinkling carts, furniture harness, and equipments he has paid and laid out more than five thousand dollars, and that said sum so invested by him is valuable only in the event that he can make such property so acquired available to him in the further prosecution of said business, otherwise said investment will be a body corporate, organized under and in pursuance of an act of the General Assembly of the commonwealth of Kentucky approved March 6, 1854, entitled 'An act to incorporate the Louisville Water Company' (2 Acts 1853-54,p. 121,c. 507) and the various amendments thereto, and under and in pursuance of which act the defendant, the Louisville Water Company, long since acquired the necessary lands, and constructed thereon reservoirs, and furnished and equipped with all the requisite appliances and machinery a complete plant or waterworks and connected the same with all parts of the city of Louisville by means of pipes, aqueducts, and mains laid and constructed under, in, and along the public ways of and in the city of Louisville, and through such pipes, mains, and aqueducts has continuously and does now supply and furnish water to the city of Louisville to the inhabitants thereof, and to all persons doing business therein, in amounts sufficient to satisfy all needs and demands, public and private, therefor, and for which the said defendant is authorized to demand and charge a sum not exceeding the average price charged in the cities of Pittsburg, Cincinnati, and St. Louis for water furnished there by the water companies supplying such cities with water.
Your orator says that the defendant, the Louisville Water Company, is invested with all of the powers and charged with all of the duties imposed upon it and required of it by the charter act aforesaid, and that by the provisions of said charter act it is the duty of the defendant, the Louisville Water Company, to furnish and supply him with all the water necessary for the purpose of enabling him to carry on and conduct the business aforesaid; that it is the duty of the defendant, the Louisville Water Company, to furnish to all persons, natural and artificial, the water required by such persons sufficient to satisfy all lawful needs therefor; and that the defendant, the Louisville Water Company, has no rightful authority to prefer one consumer of water to another, but by said statute it is the duty of the defendant, the Louisville Water Company, to treat all consumers alike, and to furnish and supply water at uniform rates to all consumers.
Your orator says that he has been supplied by the defendant, the Louisville Water Company, with the necessary amount of water to enable him to carry on and conduct his business aforesaid in the city of Louisville, and throughout the year 1902 the defendant, the Louisville Water Company, did supply him with all the water required by him for the successful prosecution of his said business in the city of Louisville Water Company, for water to enable him to carry on and conduct his said business, and he says that he will be unable, that he cannot carry on, conduct, and prosecute his said business, without a supply of water furnished to him by the defendant, the Louisville Water Company.
Your orator says that the defendant hereto, the Louisville Water Company, with an intent of breaking up his said business, and with an intent of driving him out of the business of sprinkling streets and public ways of the city of Louisville, has wrongfully and without cause refused to furnish or supply him with water with which to carry on and conduct his said business of sprinkling streets in the city of Louisville.
Your orator says that the defendant, the Louisville Water Company, now has on hand, and the capacity of keeping on hand, all the water that will be needed or required by your orator to carry on and conduct the said business and to supply and furnish all and every demand by every other person on it for water; and your orator says that by reason of such action upon the part of the defendant, the Louisville Water Company, the said defendant, the Louisville Water Company, has determined and decided that your orator shall not hereafter carry on, conduct, or prosecute his business of sprinkling streets and public ways in the city of Louisville.
Your orator says that he cannot obtain water for said purpose from any other source than the Louisville Water Company.
Your orator says that he is now under contract with the owners of lands, lots, and houses fronting on the following streets in the city of Louisville to sprinkle the streets and public ways in front thereof for the spring, summer, and fall of 1903 for the contract price agreed upon by and between your orator and such owners, to wit: Main street from Preston to Fourteenth streets, Market street from Jackson to Eighth streets, Jefferson...
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