159 N.Y.S. 882 | N.Y. App. Term. | 1916
Chapter 359 of the Laws of 1915 is attacked in the complaint, and the court is asked to set it aside as unconstitutional, on the ground that the act is confiscatory in that it reduces the fare, which the defendant Rochester Electric Railway Company is permitted to charge, below a rate which would provide a reasonable profit and on the further ground that the statute being a local act contains more than one subject not expressed in its title contrary to article III of section 16 of the Constitution. The question as to whether or not the road can be run profitably upon a five-cent fare basis is one that can only be determined after a hearing upon the merits and the motion must fail so far as that proposition is. concerned but the latter question is one which appears on the face of the act itself and is open for discussion and determination upon the pleadings.
The question turns upon whether or not the provision in the act relating to a five-cent fare is germane
If the subject of the regulation of railroads is a municipal purpose it may be treated under a title amending the charter generally for what may be treated under the charter itself may be treated under such an •amendatory act. Matter of New York & L. I. Bridge Co. v. Smith, 148 N. Y. 540; People ex rel. City of Rochester v. Briggs, 50 id. 553; People ex rel. Village of Brockport v. Sutphin, 53 App. Div. 613; affd., 166 N. Y. 163; Scott v. Village of Saratoga Springs, 131 App. Div. 347; affd., 199 N. Y. 178. By the Railroad Law the legislature has fixed the fares of railroads in cities at not'to exceed five cents and by the Public Service Commission Law it has delegated the power to fix fares to that commission but neither the Railroad
The act in question therefore does not violate the provisions of the Constitution relating to the passage of private and local bills and, as the question of the confiscatory character of the act can only be determined after a hearing upon the merits, the motion for judgment on the pleadings is denied.
Motion denied.