70 Pa. Super. 499 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1918
Opinion by
The Northampton County Water Company was incorporated January 6, 1916, for the purpose of supplying water to the public in the Borough of Freemansburg in the said county. In April, 1917, it received a petition from a number of lot owners in Bethlehem Township, but adjacent to the Borough of Freemansburg, asking it
We think it proper to state at this time that, in the judgment of this court, an appeal from an order of the Public Service Commission, either granting or refusing a certificate of public convenience, cannot be made a substitute for a writ of quo warranto or other legal proceeding in which it may be judicially determined what franchises, claimed by any chartered company, are active and in full force. In granting a certificate of public convenience the commission confers no new chartered powers on any company. It takes away from no company any right or power then legally existing. As it is not a judicial body but an administrative one, its order, made from the standpoint of the public convenience solely, cannot be made the foundation for the judicial determination of what franchises do or do not belong to any corporation interested. Such matters must be determined as heretofore in a legal proceeding properly instituted in the courts for that purpose.
How then may we say, upon this appeal, that the order complained of was an unreasonable order? The questions involved are of a character that makes it clear to us they must be finally determined by the courts. We are not departing from the principle declared by our Brother Kephart in Electric Light, Heat & Power Co.’s Petition, 63 Pa. Superior Ct. 1, where it was said: “The commission should not be a party to what is manifestly an open violation of the law.” Had we such a case before us, we would be well within our rights, even in an appeal like the present one, in so holding. But, as already stated, we cannot here determine that the appellant company has any exclusive right to supply all of the inhabitants of Bethlehem Township with water. If it has not, it continues to be difficult to perceive wherein it is a party aggrieved by the.order complained of, which simply permits the petitioned company to proceed with the exercise of the chartered powers and franchises it claims to possess under,the laws of the Commonwealth.
The order of the Public Service Commission is affirmed and the appeal dismissed at the costs of the appellant.