189 Iowa 518 | Iowa | 1920
“Sec. 725. They shall have power to require every individual or private corporation operating such works or plant, subject to reasonable rules and regulations, to furnish any person applying therefor, along the line Of its pipes, mains, wires, or other conduits, Avith gas, water,''light or power, and to supply said city or toAvn AAdtli water for fire protection, and Avith gas, Avater, light or poAver for other necessary public purposes, * * * and these powers shall not be abridged by ordinance, resolution or contract.”
It will be noted from the foregoing that the legislative poAver to fix rates is conferred by this section upon the city council. The legislative poAver thus conferred Is a continuing one, and may not be abridged or bartered away by
“When the right to build and operate such works is granted to private individuals or incorporated companies by said cities and towns, they may make such grant to inure for a term of not more than twenty-five years, and authorize such individual or company to charge and collect from each person supplied by them with water, such water rent as may be agreed upon between said person or corporation so building said works, and said city or town; and such cities or towns are authorized and empowered to enter into a contract with the individual or company constructing said works, to supply said city or town with water for fire purposes, and for such other purposes as may .be necessary for the health and safety thereof, and to pay therefor such sum or sums as may be agreed upon between said contracting-parties.”
By Chapter 16, Acts of the Twenty-second General Assembly, this right of contract by the city council was taken away from cities having a population of 7,000 or more, but was still permitted to cities of smaller population. By the revision and codification of 1897, the right of contract as to rates for utilities of this character was entirely eliminated, and the legislative power to regulate rates was conferred upon the city council in all cases. The reason for the change of method is obvious enough. Under the contract method, the rights of the public were often bartered away, either ignorantly or corruptly* and utility corporations became empowered, through the contractual obligations, to enforce
The authorities cited and relied on by appellant are cases which have arisen in other states upon statutes conferring the right of contract, and all of them involved contractual obligations. W'e hold, therefore, that the evidence in question was admissible, and was, therefore, properly considered by the lower court.
III. -It is further urged, in effect, that the ordinance rates are presumptively reasonable, and that such presumption continues until they are changed by á proper ordinance. That-such rates are presumptively reasonable is to be conceded. The burden, therefore, was upon the utility corporation to show to the contrary. At this point, the evidence referred to in the foregoing division was admissible. The contention that the presumption of reasonable rates necessarily continues until new ordinance rates are adopted, cannot be sustained. To sustain such contention would be to hold that the utility corporation had no remedy, whatever'the facts might be, if the city council refused to amend the rates. The constitutionality of the ordinance rates, like the constitutionality of a statute, is always open to challenge. Indeed, the only power conferred by the legislature aipon the city council is the power to establish reasonable rates, and not unreasonable ones. To enact unreasonable rates, therefore, is to exceed, not only its constitutional power, but its statutory power as well. Without dwelling further upon the .details of the argument, it is enough to say that the ground herein covered has been fully covered in our- previous cases. Cedar Rapids Gas Light Co. v. City of Cedar Rapids, 144 Iowa 426; City of Tipton v. Tipton Light & Heating Co., 176 Iowa 224; Iowa Railway & Light Co. v. Jones Auto Co., 182 Iowa 982; Selkirk v. Sioux City Gas & Electric Co., 188 Iowa 389.
Some question is raised in appellant’s argument as to the effect upon the defendant’s franchise of its repudiation of the.ordinance rates. That question is in no manner presented upon the record before us. We have no occasion,