The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-02-02
NEW ORLEANS BULLETIN, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY q 1876

happiness" of any person in the city Of New
Orleans assailed by the statute granting the
sole and exclusive privilege to plaintiff to op-
crate gas works in New Orleans for fifty years?
The right to operate gas works and to illumin-
ate city is not an ancient or usual occupation
of citizens generally. No one has the right
to dig up the streets and lay down gas
pipes, erect lamp posts and carry on the
business of Lighting the streets and the
houses of the city of New Orleans,
without special authority from the sovereign.
It is a franchise belonging to the State and in
the exercise of the police power the State
could carry on the business itself, Or select
one or several agents to do SO. And as the
Legislature had the right in 1885, to grant the
sole and exclusive privilege to the defendant
company to make and vend gas in New Or
leans for forty years, the Legislature of 1870
had the same power to confer on the plaintiff
the same privilege for fifty years from the
termination of the grant to defendant. We,
therefore, conclude that the grant of the
monopoly complained of does not violate the
constitution, and it is valid, % A., 553, 16
Wallace SO; % A., 743. See also Corfeld VS..
Coryelle, Wash, c. G. Rep, page $50; also
Dillon on Corporations, sections SAG, 1919
We come now to consider the rights of the
intervenor. Without going into details we
conclude that the State intervening, not to
set up some separate right of its own, but
solely for the purpose of upholding the rights
of the plaintiff against the defendant, in regard
to franchise granted by itself, has no inter-
est whatever in the controversy, and the court
below did not err in dismissing its interven-
ton. In regard to the Intervention of the
city of New Orleans, we will remark that the
right reserved by the State for it to become
purchaser of the gas works, fixtures, machines,
pipes, ETC., at the expiration Of the charter of
the defendant, was not such vested right
that the State could not withdraw or recall
without contravening that provision of the
a State from impairing the obligations of a
contract. Conceding that the authority
given to the city if she saw fit, at the expira-
ton of defendants charter, to purchase the
gas works, by implication conferred authority
to operate said works, the State had the right
to recall or withdraw the authority, as it did
in the act of 1870 before the time for using
the authority arrived. And the grant of the
sole and exclusive privilege to plaintiff to
make and vend gas is utterly repugnant to the
right of any other person Or corporation to
make and vend gas in New Orleans. And
this grant, by implication, revoked or recalled
any previous authority given the city to buy
the gas works of the defendant on LIST April,
gas.
The powers and privileges granted by the
State to the city of New Orleans, and other
political corporations used in the administra-
ton Of government, may be recalled or modi-
fed by the Legislature at pleasure. And, in
doing SO, they violate no contract protected
by the Constitution of the United States.
Impressed with this view of the law, this
Court, in 1850, in the case of the Police Jury
Of Bossier parish vs.. Corporation of Shreve-
port, A., 664, decided that the act of Goth
March, 1889. incorporating the town of
Shreveport and giving the municipal authori-
lies exclusive right to establish ferries across
The river, did not create a contract of vested
rights in that corporation which the Legisla-
.ure could not constitutionally change or
lnnul
And this doctrine was reafirmed by this
court in the case Of Marks vs.. the town of
Donaldsonville "a An. 242. See also the
case of LAYTON VS.. city of New Orleans IL
An, SIS !; Dillon on Corp, I'd ed, 81, 40 II
Peters, $50 How, 534. We therefore con-
,lude that the Intervention of the city of New
Orleans cannot be maintained.
1t is, therefore, ordered that the Judgment
herein be set aside and annul!ed, and it is
lecreed that the plaintiff, the Crescent City |
ias Light Company, have the sole and exclu- |
he city of New Orleans for fifty years from !
April l, 1875; that the act of March 1, 1860, |;
the charter of the defendant, the
New Orleans Gas Light Company, from April
|, 1875, until April l, 1895. is unconstitu-
ional and void and that the de-
endant be epjoined and inhibited from
citing up any claim hereunder, or
rom attempting to carry on the operation of
gas works or the business of making and
7ending gas after the LIST Of April, 1875, or
rom in any manner impeding the plaintiff
rom the full enjoyment of its franchises,
lights and privileges arising under the acts of
April 20, 1870, and July TO- 1873. 1t is further
rdered that the Intervention of the State be
dismissed with costs, and the demand of the
ntervenor, the city of New Orleans, be re-
ected with costs Of its Intervention. It is
urther ordered that the defendant pay costs
f both courts.