193 Pa. 245 | Pa. | 1899
Opinion by
The question presented by this appeal is whether the purchasers at a sheriff’s sale of the rights and franchises of an electric light, heat and power company are authorized by the Act of May 25, 1878, P. L. 145, to reorganize the company. This depends upon whether an electric light, heat and power company is a manufacturing company within the meaning and intent of the act. The learned judge of the common pleas who decided the case felt that he was concluded upon the subject by the decision in Commonwealth v. Northern Electric Light & Power Co., 145 Pa. 105, followed in Commonwealth v. Edison Electric Light and Power Co., 170 Pa. 231, and that in the light of these decisions the statute does not authorize a reorganization by the purchasers of an electric light, heat and power company.
The question in Commonwealth v. Northern Electric Light & Power Co., supra, was whether the defendant came within the provision of the Act of June 30,1885, P. L. 193, which repealed the Act of June 7, 1879, P. L. 112, in so far as it related to manufacturing corporations. In the common pleas it was held, (1) that the defendant had not so clearly shown itself to be a manufacturing corporation as to warrant the court in holding that it was exempt from taxation on its capital stock; (2) that corporations of the kind to which the defendant belonged did not come within the policy of the legislation exempting manufacturing corporations from taxation on their capital stock.
The first finding did not receive the assent of this Court, and it was said, in substance, in the opinion by Williams, J., that the testimony showed that the defendant was a manufacturing
The ground on which the decision is said to rest, the definition of manufacturing companies adopted by the legislature, will not bear the test of the act of 1874 in the light of later decisions, or of the legislative interpretations of the earlier act by more recent ones which are in pari materia. Clause 11 of section 2 of the Act of April 29, 1874, P. L. 73, provides for the incorporation of companies for the manufacture and supply of gas or the supply of light or heat to the public by any other means ; and as amended by the Act of May 8, 1889, P. L. 136, for the supply of light, heat or power by means of electricity or any other means.
In the recent decision of Southern Electric Light & Power Co. v. Philadelphia, 191 Pa. 170, it was said: “ The distinction which is urged between the ‘ manufacture of electricity ’ and ‘ the supplying of it ’ is without force. The power to supply includes the power to manufacture.” Clause 1 of section 34 of the act of 1874 authorizes companies incorporated under it to erect and maintain “ the necessary buildings, machinery and appliances for manufacturing gas, heat or light from coal or other materials; ” and the word “ manufacture ” is used in the Act of May 20, 1891, P. L. 90, which authorizes boroughs to manufacture electricity. The Act of June 25, 1895, P. L. 302, makes it unlawful “ to connect or disconnect electrical conductors belonging to any company engaged in the manufacture and supply of electrical currents for the purpose of light, heat or power.”
What we have said is not intended to affect the decisions in
The judgment is reversed.