88 N.J.L. 81 | N.J. | 1915
The opinion of the court was delivered by
The writ brings up an order of the Board of Public Utility Commissioners making applicable to North
The contract relied on is dated December 24tli, 1907, and provides also for hydrants and street sprinkling at the public expense, as well as for rates to private consumers. In 1913 a second contract was made, not referring to the first in any way, and relating to municipal water consumption alone, without reference to private consumption. The water company, apparently conceiving that the second contract wholly supplanted the first, then put up the private rate to forty cents, and there was an appeal to the utility board, which, as has been stated, reduced the rate to thirty cents. Prosecutors are not satisfied with this result and by this writ seek to reestablish the original contract rate of twenty-five cents with a minimum charge of $10.
Eor the water company it is claimed that the contract of 1913 covered the subject-matter of that of 1907 and that the rule of statutory construction should be applied, that a later statute covering the whole subject-matter will be deemed to repeal previous legislation on the subject. Board of Education v. Tait, 81 N. J. Eq. 161; Gottuso v. Baker, 80 N. J. L. 520. Assuming the applicability of this rule to contracts, it is not applicable in the case at bar, because the second contract contains no mention of the very subject of controversy, viz., the rate to private consumers, which, as we think, remained unchanged and unimpaired by the contract of 1913.
This, however, does not help the prosecutors; for while the municipality itself has not assented to a change in rate, the state, its creator and parent, has done so through a
We conclude that the board acted within the jurisdiction conferred upon it, in raising the rate to thirty cents as against the objection of the borough and citizen, and as the rate fixed by it does not appear to ho unjust or unreasonably high, the order brought up will bo affirmed, with costs.