51 So. 354 | Ala. | 1910
The Birmingham Waterworks Company, a corporation chartered by special act of the Legislature of date February 13, 1885 (Loc. Acts 1884-85, p. 415), is furnishing water for the use of the city of Birmingham and its inhabitants and for manufacturing purposes under an ordinance-contract of May 31, 1888, which provides that the rates therein fixed shall never be exceeded. The company has entered into contracts with some consumers similarly situated with the relator, by which it has undertaken to furnish to them water at a rate less than the maximum charges allowed by the ordinance. Relator does not complain that he is charged more than the maximum rate, nor even that he is charged more than a reasonable price for the water he uses, but his contention is that he is entitled to receive water at the most favorable rate furnished to any others similarly situated. And he seeks
So, then, the question is whether when the water company grants to one or more consumers a rate less than the legally fixed maximum, and less also than the reasonable rate which it might exact, all other consumers are entitled as of right to receive the most favorable rate granted to any consumer. The business of water companies incorporated to furnish water to the public is naturally monopolistic. Such companies are given the power of eminent domain — a power granted by the public in order that the needs and purposes of the public may be served more effectually. Such a business is therefore affected with a public use. — Mobile v. Bienville Water Company, 130 Ala. 379, 30 South. 445; Munn v. Illinois, 94 U. S. 113, 24 L. Ed. 77; Lumbard v. Albina Light & Water Co., 21 Or. 411, 28 Pac. 244, 14 L. R. A. 424; Am. Waterworks v. State ex rel. Walker, 46 Neb. 194, 64 N. W. 711, 30 L. R. A. 447, 50 Am. St.
In the nature of the case there'must be data from which the reasonableness of charges for water furnished may be estimated with an approximation sufficiently close for every practical purpose; the case differing in that respect materially from the case of a common carrier of goods and passengers. In the last-named case many elements of uncertainty enter. But even in the case of, carriers it has never been held that every special concession established a new rate to be observed in all cases, and the evil growing out of the lack of uniformity in charges has been met by statutes punishing the granting of special rates, rebates, and passes.
On the facts shown, the relator was not entitled to the relief sought, and the judgment of the trial court must be affirmed.
Affirmed.