Opinion ID: 1423514
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Franchise and License Agreements

Text: Bridgeton, Missouri, is a municipality in St. Louis County located between Lambert-St. Louis International Airport and the city of St. Charles. Taussig Road is a Bridgeton thoroughfare. From its intersection with St. Charles Rock Road in the southwest, it runs northeast until it becomes Missouri Bottom Road just south of Missouri Route 370. Missouri-American is a public utility company that provides water service to customers in Bridgeton and elsewhere in Missouri. In 1902, the St. Louis County Court granted to Missouri-American's predecessor, the Missouri Water, Light & Traction Company, a franchise (the 1902 County Franchise) that provided as follows: Permission, authority and license is hereby given to the said Missouri Water, Light & Traction Company, its successors and assigns, to lay and maintain mains and pipes, along and across all the public highways as they now exist, or may hereafter be laid out, of the County of St. Louis. At that time, Taussig Road was a St. Louis County road. In 1951, Bridgeton passed an ordinance granting to another Missouri-American predecessor, the St. Louis County Water Company, a twenty-year franchise (the Bridgeton Franchise) to use the streets, avenues, alleys, parks and other public places within the Town as now bounded, and within any future extensions of its limits, for the purpose of putting down, laying, maintaining or using water mains, water pipes, fire hydrants and other appliances. In 1956, Bridgeton annexed Taussig Road. All the Missouri-American facilities in the Taussig Road right-of-way and the adjoining property were installed after the annexation. When the Bridgeton Franchise expired in 1971, it was not renewed and no new franchise was granted. Missouri-American has continued to supply water to the city and pay gross receipts taxes for doing business in the city, which Bridgeton has accepted. In 1967, the Norfolk and Western Railway Company and the St. Louis County Water Company executed a License for Underground Facilities, in which the railway granted to the water company the license and permission to construct, operate, use and thereafter maintain or remove an underground 20 inch pipe line, for the handling of water over two strips of land adjoining the Taussig Road right-of-way. The agreement provides that when the railway desires to make changes to the premises, the water company must relocate its pipe line at its own expense to accommodate the changes. The agreement is silent on the issue of termination. It expressly provides that it shall inure to the benefit of and be binding upon the successors and assigns of the parties hereto, respectively. Bridgeton now owns the affected land. It also owns several other parcels adjoining the Taussig Road right-of-way, including land known as Parcels 21 and 22, that contain Missouri-American facilities.