284 P. 70 | Okla. | 1930
This appeal is from an order of the Corporation Commission of the *99 state of Oklahoma wherein on July 10, 1925, the Okmulgee Gas Company, a corporation, filed with the Corporation Commission of the state of Oklahoma, a declaration and agreement of the Okmulgee Gas Company, a corporation, surrendering its municipal franchise in exchange for a revocable permit. On the 18th day of July, 1925, the city of Okmulgee, state of Oklahoma, a municipal corporation, filed its protest and objection to the jurisdiction of the Corporation Commission to permit the Okmulgee Gas Company, a corporation, to surrender its municipal franchise in exchange for a revocable permit, and alleging that House Bill No. 4 is in violation of and contrary to section 5a of art. 18 of the Constitution, and to section 32 of art. 2 of the Constitution, and to other sections of the Constitution of the state of Oklahoma.
On the 18th day of July, 1925, the Corporation Commission of the state of Oklahoma denied the protest and objections of the city of Okmulgee, and issued a certificate of issuance of revocable permit to the Okmulgee Gas Company, and from that order of the Commission, the city of Okmulgee gave notice of appeal to this court, and a transcript of the proceedings before the Corporation Commission, duly certified to as required by law, was filed in this court on January 15, 1926. Thereafter a stipulation was filed in said cause, agreeing that it might be held in abeyance pending a decision by this court in No. 18465, City of Okmulgee, a Municipal Corporation, v. Okmulgee Gas Company, a Corporation, Defendant in Error, and Oklahoma Natural Gas Corporation, Substituted Defendant in Error.
This court has decided cause No. 18465, which has become final, and is reported in
Having arrived at the conclusion that chapter 102 of the Session Laws of 1925 is *100 unconstitutional and void, we hold that the Corporation Commission, of the state of Oklahoma is without jurisdiction to permit the surrender of a municipal franchise granted by a municipal corporation and the receiving in lieu thereof by the holder of such franchise of a revocable permit, as, under the Constitution of this state, the municipality granting the franchise and having the right under the Constitution to grant the same alone has the authority by vote of the electors as provided for in the Constitution of extending or renewing such franchise, and this right reserved in our Constitution by the people to themselves cannot be taken away from them by the Legislature, and any attempt to do so violates the letter and spirit of our Constitution, and is therefore void.
Owing to the fact that we fully discussed the contentions presented in this case in the case of City of Okmulgee v. Okmulgee. Gas Company, supra, we do not feel that any useful purpose could be served by a further discussion of the issues in this appeal. We therefore hold that the action of the Corporation Commission in permitting the Okmulgee Gas Company, a corporation, to surrender its municipal franchise and receive in lieu thereof a revocable permit from the state of Oklahoma was beyond the power and jurisdiction of the Corporation Commission, and this cause is therefore reversed and remanded to the Corporation Commission of the state of Oklahoma, with directions to cancel the revocable permit issued the Okmulgee Gas Company, and to dismiss said proceedings for want of jurisdiction of the Corporation Commission to grant said permit.
MASON, C. J., LESTER, V. C. J., and CLARK, RILEY, HEFNER, CULLISON, and ANDREWS, JJ., concur. HUNT, J., dissents.
Note. — See "Franchises," 26 C. J. § 98, p. 1040, n. 33. "Monopolies," 41 C. J. § 13, p. 87, n. 64.