The daily sentinel., 1906-05-15
Injunction Granted
Judge stevens Orders that the Grand
Junction City Council be TEN.
porarily Restrained from
Granting Franchise.

Judge Theron Stevens. of the dist
ri't court, in chambers al Ourov M
late hour yesterday afternoon is
Gtu an order restraining the city
council Of Grand Junction from grant
lHs an extension of franchise 10 mo
Gfand Junction Electric and Gas com
pany at this lime.
The injunction was granted on nm.
piicatiou of Ed NJ. Slocomb one of the
directors of the Citizens Gas & Coke
company of this city.
lhe injunction granted by Judge
stevens is temporary and not perma-
henL The plaintiff desired per
manent injunction but this the court
would not grant
/ Judge Stevens in rendering his de.
c'sion, which was an oral one. stated
ltat in ordering the temporary in
|. injunction against the city council
lhat he did so for Two reasons and
I lows.
\ Firstly; The court contends that
the ordinance providing for the ex-
I tension of the franchise of the light
company was not published in fun.
which il is held is illegal The court
0 i''ia'''A- NAA AAAtAl Vel AdAU PORTIONS OIL
the proposed ordinance made refer
eenee to certain sections Of certain or
dlnances when it should have publish
I ed In full these sections referred to.
Secondly; The court held that the
proposed ordinance authorized the
I continuance of the franchise of the
Grand Junction Electric & Gas com
pany, by council, without first put
ting the proposition to n vote of the
people. which Judge Stevens declares
is in direct violation of the Colorado
law of 1899 and which law the court
holds is still in effect
/ For these two reasons Judge Stev-
ems declared that he felt obliged to
grant the application for the
injunction asked for by Mr.. Slo-
comb.
The court occupied some time in
delivering his decision in the matter
and discussed at length the two rea-
sons he gave for granting the injunc-
ton
II is reported than in making his
decision the court admitted that the
decision in the Gunnison case was
shaken to some extent by the argu-
ments submitted by Attorney Stern
berg for the light company, and city
Attorney n. Il. Coles.
In n conversation with the Sen
tinel this morning over the telephone
Judge Stevens stated that the Gun
nisOn case in which he granted an in
junction against the Gunnison coun-
ell preventing it from granting a
franchise without first putting the
matter to vote of the people diff
fered from the case of yesterday in
so far as the Gunnison ordinance was
published in full while the Grand
Junction ordinance was not.
The injunction against the Gun
nison council was granted after the
council had taken action and its
purpose was to prevent council from
enforcing the ordinance or carrying
out its provisions while the injunc-
tion of yesterday prevents the Grand
Junction city council from taking ac-
tion or from granting an extension OF
franchise to the electric light cmpany'
The application of Mr. Slocomb oc-
cupied the attention of Judge Stev-
ems all day yesterday As stated in
the Sentinel yesterday the arguments
took up almost the entire day. and
every step OF the way was bitterly
fought by the attorneys Judge Stey-
ems rendered his decision about six o.
clock. No stenographic report was
taken of the decision or of the argu-
ments
The local attorneys interested In
the case will return today