121 Cal. 312 | Cal. | 1898
The board of trustees of the city of Red-lands having in February, 1896, adopted an ordinance fixing the rates to he charged or collected for furnishing water to its inhabitants for domestic purposes during the year commencing July 1, 1896, the plaintiff brought the present action for a judgment annulling the ordinance, upon the ground that the rates therein prescribed would not yield a revenue sufficient to enable it to pay the interest on its indebtedness, its operating expenses and taxes, and for keeping its plant in repair, and replacing the same. At the trial of the cause the court found that the total amount of income which the plaintiff would receive during the year would he twenty thousand seven hundred and
In the items of expenditure which the court found that the plaintiff is entitled to be reimbursed from the income derived from the rates fixed by the ordinance is the sum of seven thousand five hundred and eighty dollars for interest, and two thousand eight hundred and ninety-eight dollars and sixty cents for depreciation of plant, the latter item being the amount which the court finds will be the annual depreciation of the plant, aside from the amount requisite for its maintenance and repairs during the year.
In San Diego Water Co. v. San Diego, 118 Cal. 556, 62 Am. St. Rep. 261, it was held that the interest upon the indebtedness of the water company is not a proper item of expenditure to be provided for in fixing the annual rates to be charged or collected for furnishing water to the inhabitants of a city, and that the water company is not entitled to have the rates so fixed as to enable it to set apart a certain amount each year as a sinking fund for the depreciation of its plant.. The provision in the judgment herein directing that the rates be fixed so as to assure an income sufficient to pay these items
The judgment is reversed and new trial ordered.
Garoutte, J., concurred.
Van Fleet, J., concurred in the judgment.