82 F. 797 | U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Eastern Pennsylvania | 1897
This is an action for the recovery of certain charges imposed by two ordinances of the plaintiff, which the defendant contends are invalid. Upon the trial the counsel of both parties united in suggesting that the case was for decision by the court, but each of them claimed that a verdict should be directed for ids client. Thereupon the jury was instructed to find for the defendant, and, a verdict having been rendered accordingly, the plaintiff now-moves for a new trial.
One of these ordinances imposed a charge of $1 per annum for each, telegraph pole maintained in the city of Philadelphia by any telegraph company, including the defendant; and the other of them required, in addition to this pole charge, the annual payment of $2.50 per mile on all wires suspended above ground. The defendant conceded that, if the amount; of these charges was not unreasonably in excess of the amount needful to defray the expense to which"the municipality was subjected for inspection and regulation of the appliances of the telegraph companies, the ordinances should he sustained; and to this question of reasonableness the evidence was directed. A witness, whose qualification as an expert plainly appeared and was not questioned, testified, without objection, that a liberal
Upon the facts disclosed on the trial, it then seemed to me, as it still does, that, although the city should be fairly and even liberally treated, the ordinances in question could not-be upheld. There is nothing to distinguish this case from the one between the same parties which was decided by this court in 1889, and which is reported in 40 Fed. 615. That decision was based upon the fact that a charge, had