The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1913-09-25
Old Contract.

Old Contract.
Prior to 1892 the city was under
contract to pay rental of $55 per
year for every fire hydrant maintain
ed by the city. That year this con-
tract expired and a new one was en-
tered into between the city and com
pany, which provided that the city
should continue to pay $55 year rent
al for each of the hydrants then in
operation, and it further provided that
for every additional hydrant establish
ed, on the ratio of one to every 500
feet of line extension, the city should
pay said Water Works company an
annual rental of $40 for each hydrant
set on said extension"
But the Water Works company has
not been charging the city for hydrant
rentals based on the number of hy-
drants set up in the city. 1t has been
charging for one hydrant for every 500
feet of line extension, regardless of
whether there is a hydrant on each
extension.
Commenting on this in his report,
Mr.. Bond says: The Water works
company has construed this ordinance
to mean that it has a right to collect
from the city $40 per annum as hy-
main extension without regard to the
number of hydrants ordered by the
city and set by the company. l do not
believe that this is the proper con-
struction that this ordinance should
receive and that, therefore, all pay
ments heretofore made by the city to
the Water Works company in excess
of the actual number of hydrants SET
and in operation have been made in
violation of this ordinance and should
be repaid to the city by the Water
Works company.
Condition DepIorabie.
"It is somewhat unfortunate from a
legal viewpoint that this method has
been permitted to continue so long
without any protest from the city.
Twenty years is quite long time for
such a method to be followed without
the city by any officer having raised
any objection thereto; but there is no
reason why this wrong method should
be followed any longer.
LAS stated above, / do not believe
that the city possesses any legal au-
thority to pay rental for the hydrant
set at South Seventh and n streets,
which is outside the corporate limits.
1t would have just as much right to
pay for the ones set at Earlham Col
lege or Reid Memorial hospital, or
elsewhere outside of the city, Having
no legal right to pay for this hydrant,
any contract which may have been
made between the city and the water
works by which the former agreed to
nav therefor was ultra wires and void
so far as the city is concerned, and the
same cannot be enforced against the
city.
Courts generally have recognized
as a truism that what a municipality
has no power to do it has not done
merely because it tried to do it, and
have accordingly refused to give legal
effect to ultra wires contracts
Fixes Responsibility.
City Attorney Bond also states in
his report:
when the city orders extensions
of mains, the Water Works company
is under no obligation TO make the
same unless within the provisions OF
this ordinance, but if it does in fact
/ do so without the city ordering an ad-
iitional hydrant, or there being the re-
ouired consumption assured, it acts
! on it's own responsibility and has no
right to add hydrant rental based only
/ on such extension. The city is TO pay
! for hydrants set and not on the basis
/ of the number of feet of extension"
The report shows that between