Western Union Telegraph Co. v. Borough of New Hope
Supreme Court of the United States
ERROR TO THE SUPERIOR OOTJRT OF THE STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA. By an ordinance passed in 1894, the borough of New Hope, Pennsylvania, imposed an annual license fee of one dollar per pole and two dollars and a half per mile of wire on the telegraph, telephone, and electric light poles and wires within its limits.
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ERROR TO THE SUPERIOR OOTJRT OF THE STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA. By an ordinance passed in 1894, the borough of New Hope, Pennsylvania, imposed an annual license fee of one dollar per pole and two dollars and a half per mile of wire on the telegraph, telephone, and electric light poles and wires within its limits. The Western Union Telegraph Company had constructed prior thereto and had since maintained and operated a line ;of telegraph poles and wires through the borough, and this was an action brought in the Court of Common Pleas of Bucks-County, in that State, against the company to. recover…
1Opinion of the Court
Me. Chief Justice Fullee',
after making the foregoing- statement, -delivered the opinion of the court.
It is conceded that the borough had the right in. the exercise of its police power to impose a reasonable license fee upon telegraph poles and wires within its limits, and that an ordinance imposing such fee is to be taken as prima faeie reasonable. But it is insisted that on the evidence in this case the presumption ■of reasonableness is rebutted, and that the ordinance as administered is void because a regulation of interstate commerce. While in the exercise of its control over its streets,…
2Cases cited2 opinions
- St. Louis v. Western Union Telegraph Co.Supreme Court of the United States · 1893
- St. Louis v. Western Union Telegraph Co.Supreme Court of the United States · 1893
3Cited by59 opinions
- Sprout v. South BendSupreme Court of the United States · 1928
- Red "C" Oil Manufacturing Co. v. Board of AgricultureSupreme Court of the United States · 1912
- Postal Telegraph-Cable Co. v. City of RichmondSupreme Court of the United States · 1919
- Barrett v. City of New YorkSupreme Court of the United States · 1914
- Sprout v. City of South BendSupreme Court of the United States · 1928
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