Court Opinion

ID: 5448841
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-01-08 18:15:48.2152+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:32:18.286582
License: Public Domain

TEMPLE, J.,
concurring. I agree generally in the views expressed by Mr. Justice Garoutte. I do not comprehend how in this case the exercise of the power to regulate charges or to fix compensation for furnishing water is a taking within the meaning of section 14, article I, of the constitution. The waterworks were all constructed subsequent to tbe adoption of the constitution of 1879. Tbe city owns no waterworks. It is provided in section 19, article XI, of tbe constitution that any individual or company shall bave the use of the streets, fox laying down pipes and conduits and making connections therewith, so far as necessary for introducing into and supplying the city and the inhabitants with fresh water, “upon the condition that the municipal government shall have the right to regulate the charges *585thereof.” Tbe corporation, therefore, constructed its works and invested every dollar of its capital upon this express condition. The privilege of distributing water for pay is a franchise which might have been withheld altogether. It is really a privilege granted to a private individual to perform a public service for pay. It is granted to all upon this express reservation of the right to regulate charges.
Article XIV is the complement to the section before quoted. It declares that the use of all water appropriated for sale or distribution is a public use, subject to the control of the state, and that in cities the “rates or compensation” shall be fixed annually by the governing body of such city, which rates shall continue in force for one year only, and, further, that any individual or company collecting water rates otherwise than as so established shall forfeit his or its franchise and works to the city.
There is here no taking under the power of eminent domain, nor in any other sense than is implied in every service rendered for hire.
There is, then, no obligation to remunerate water companies for investments made or to allow interest thereon, either upon first cost or present value. The obligation is to compensate for service rendered. What will constitute just compensation involves many considerations. Certainly, no allowance need be made for unnecessary expenditures, either in construction or management. Nor is the test always the cost to the companies. There is no limit to the number of companies which may bring water into a city. The franchise is freely offered to all in the constitution. If there are many companies, and thereby the cost of management is increased, this fact would not call for increased rates. The service is worth no more when rendered by ten companies than when one company furnishes all the water. Incidentally to the inquiry as to what is a fair compensation for the service, the governing board may well inquire into the cost which the company whose rates are to be regulated have incurred in bringing water to the city and in distributing it. But these matters are merely incidental and never determinative of the question.
All the elements entering into the question having been determined, opinions would still vary as to what would be fair compensation. The constitution has imposed upon the govern*586ing body of the city tlie duty of determining that question, and granted the privilege of the streets and the franchise to distribute water upon the express condition that such boards may determine the question. As already shown, the works have been constructed under this express agreement. The court cannot fix the rates—is, in fact, expressly prohibited by the letter of the constitution from so doing. The company will forfeit its franchise and property if it collects rates “otherwise than as so established." This prohibits them from collecting charges as fixed by the courts. The only proper judicial question is, Whether compensating rates have been fixed. Whether they are too high or too low is not a judicial question. The judge cannot substitute his judgment for that of the body to whom the discretion is given by the constitution.
There is much learning upon this subject in the law books, and a great variety of opinions, not to- say contrariety, can be found. I know of none which—the facts considered—need be deemed adverse to these views. If there were no such constitutional provisions, the case might be different.
I notice that section 19, article XI, applies only to cities which own no public works. Whether the privilege of using the streets or the right to distribute and sell water exists or can exist in cities which do own such works may be a question. If they do exist, there can be no doubt of the application of article XIV to persons or corporations selling water in such cities. In such eases could the city be compelled to take and pay for other works which only diminish the value of its own property?