Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1917-10-01
BELFAST WATER COM
PLANT DISMISSED

IF the municipality avoids payment
for that part of the service rendered
il, the inhab itants of the municipality
must make it up. There is no pre-
sumption that it is the respondents
duty to furnish water al a loss" This
IL the comment of the Public Utilities
Commission on the situation in Bel
fast as disclosed in the complaint of
Wilmer J. Dorman ct ais V. Belfast
Water Co. in decision rendered Sat
urday smissing the complaint.
The City of Belfast and the prede-
cessors of the Belfast Water Co. en-
tered into written contract, Novem-
Der Is, 1856, in which the contra ctors
aereed to build a water works; to
supply Belfast hydrant service for
fixed annual rental during 20 years,
and thereafter forever free; to furnish
water for schools and all other public
purposes in return for exemption from
taxation; and that the charges or
rates for water supplied for domestic
and other purposes shall not exceed
those in other towns and cities of
Maine Of the general size and circum-
stances of Belfast and similarly stu
ated."
After the expiratio Of the 90 years
or nearly all of the hydrants, the by
drant rental ceasing, the water com
rany increased its domestic rates.
Later, it undertook to collect further
ny drant rentals, on the ground that
failure to collect this rental and plac-
ing the whole charge on the domestic
users was unjustly discriminatory and
unlawful under the Public Utilities Act.
This case went to the courts, and it
was there held that the original con-
tract still was operative as to hydrant
rentals-the only question then up.
The company then made further
advance in its domestic rates to meet
losses in expenses and fixed charges
The compliments alleged that these
new rates were higher than those
charged for similar uses in other
towns and cities Of the same popula-
ton. and, therefore, violation of the
&C ntract. They rested their case en-
tirely on the contract. Contending that
il did not make any difference whether
the rates were sufficient to meet ex-
penses, or what the conditions were
in the towns and cities with which
comparison was made. tThey offered
no evidence except the contract, and
rested their case entirely upon the
legal effect of it.
The decision of the Public Utilities
Commission traces the history of the
contract and of subsequent action by
the State Legislature. and holds that
whatever may have been true Of the
az e., hn
city never had any right to fix the
domestic rates by contract: that the
State itself, in the charter of the Bel
fast Water Company, reserved and I'M
dertook to exercise that right; that, in
enacting the Public Utilities Law, 1t
changed the method of regulation by
requiring that rates shall be reason
able according to the value Of the
property and fair return thereon.
The decision holds that, "the power
to make such change is too generally
recognized to be seriously questioned.
Assuming even that the city's attempt
to regulate was not superseded by the
action Of the legislature, it was COM
petent for the legislature to waive any
contract rights of one of its political
subdivisions .. The decision refers to
the earlier decision in one case of the
Augusta Water District published in
1915. and cites decision of State and
Federal Courts.
If we are right in the view" con-
tinues the decision, that the provis-
ion contained in the contract is in
operative, it is not necessary to con-
slider what that provision means
The compliments theory is that it
arbitrarily limited the respondent to
individual rates no higher than those
charged in other towns and cities Of
the same population, regardless of
whether the water is pumped or sup
piled by gravity flow, whether it has
to be filtered or can be used raw,
whether the plant is taxed or exempted
from taxation, whether the population
is reached in a densely settled area or
through an expensive distribution sys-
tom, whether the municipal service is
paid for or furnished free In fact,
they would ignore every element that
1lry Az