PUBLIC SERVICE CORPORATION. The supplying of municipalities and their citizens with such public utilities as gas, water, elec tric light and communication for public and private use, by the municipal corporation or by private capital, is the performance of a public duty and the property so used is charged with a public trust. Such property cannot be sold without statutory authority ; Dillon, Mun. Corp. § 991, 1102; Cumberland Tel. & Tel. Co. v. Evansville, 127 Fed. 187 ; South Pasadena v. Land dz Water Co., 152 Cal. 579, 93 Pac. 490. In the absence of stat utory authority, a private corporation sup plying water to a city cannot lease its'prop erty, franchise and contracts to another cor poration; New Albany Waterworks v. Bank ing Co., 122 Fed. 776, 58 C. C. A. 576; this rule does not prevent a transfer thereof to the municipality ; Indianapolis v. C. Gas Trust Co., 144 Fed. 640, 75 C. C. A. 442.
Such a corporation has a duty to perform to every private consumer (of water) inde pendently of any contract duty it owes to the municipality. For a breach to4 this duty the company may be held liable in tort by the aggrieved member of the public, though he was not a party to the contract between the city and the water company ; Freeman v. Gas Light & Water Co., 126 Ga. 843, 56 S. E. 61, 7 L. R. A. (N. S.) 917 ; Westfield G. & M. Co. v. Mendenhall, 142 Ind. 538, 41 N. E. 1033. A customer may enjoin a company from furnishing water for the supply of rail road locomotives and the generation of mo tive power, when that would disenable it from furnishing an adequate supply for do mestic and other purposes for which the plant was established ; Boonton v. Water Co., 69 N. J. Eq. 23, 61 Atl. 390; he has a right to service under the most favorable conditions ; Rice v. R. Co., 122 Mich. 677, 81 N. W. 927, 48 L. R. A. 84.
The rights of such corporations as defined in the franchise cannot be modified by the by-laws of the public service corporation, and so far as such by-laws are inconsistent with j ' the provisions of the franchise, they will be held void ; Bourke v. Water Co., 84 Vt. 121, 78 Atl. 715, 33 L. It. A. (N. S.) 1015. Such a company must serve without discrimination all persons who pay the established rates and comply with the reasonable regulations of the company; Watauga Water Co. v. Wolf, 99 Tenn. 429, 41 S.' W. 1060, 63 Am. St. Rep. 841; American Waterworks Co. v. State, 46 Neb. 194, 64 N. W. 711, 30 L. R. A. 447, 50
Am. St. Rep. 610; Haugen v. Light & Water Co., 21 Or. 411, 28 Pac. 244, 14 L. R. A. 424; Olmsted v. Morris Aqueduct, 47 N. J. L. 311; Rushville v. Natural Gas Co., 132 Ind. 575, 28 N. E. 853, 15 L. R. A. 321. A water com pany is a quasi public corporation, and by the acceptance of its franchise is bound to supply all persons along the line of its mains without discrimination and at uniform rates ; Griffin v. Water Co., 122 N. C. 206, 30 S. E. 319, 41 L. R. A. 240.
They may discontinue service for non-pay ment ; State v. Board, 105 Minn. 472, 117 N. W. 827, 127 Am. Bt. Rep. 581. It has been held that the consumer may be required to pay the expenses of service connections ; Gleason v. Waukesha Co., 103 Wis. 225, 79 N. W. 249.
It will be presumed that local rates fixed by a state statute, or by a state railroad commission, under the authority of such a statute, are reasonable ; Minneapolis & St. L. R. Co. v. Minnesota, 186 U. S. 257, 22 Sup. Ct. 900, 46 L. Ed. 1151 ; Chicago, M. & St. P. R. Co. v. Tompkins, 176 U. S. 167, 20 Sup. Ct. 336, 44 L. Ed. 417; Ex parte Young, 209 U. S. 123, 28 Sup. Ct. 441, 52 L. Ed. 714, 13 L. It. A. (N. S.) 932, 14 Ann. Cas. 764.
In Pennsylvania public service corpora tions are entitled to look for a rate of re turn, if their property will earn it, not less than the legal rate of interest ; a system of charges that yields no more income than is fairly requisite to maintain the plant, pay fixed charges and operating expenses, pro vide a suitable sinking fund for the pay ment of debts and pay a fair profit to the owners of the property is tiot unreasonable; Pennsylvania R. Co. v. Philadelphia Co., 220 Pa. 100, 68 Atl. 676, 15 L. It. A. (N. S.) 108.
An electric street railway company is a public service corporation and has both pub lic and private duties ; the operation of its cars is the former, and any harm done there by is dantnum &ague injuria, but the selec tion of a site for its power house and the generation of power is a thing with which the public has no concern, and as to that the company stands on the footing of an in dividual, and if it creates a nuisance it is liable ; Townsend v. It. & L. Co., 105 Va. 22, 52 S. E. 970, 4 L. R. A. (N. S.) 87, 115 Am. St. Rep. 842, 8 Ann. Cas. 558.
See POND ; PUBLIC UTILITIES ; RATES ; GAS ; WATER COMPANIES ; RAILROADS ; Wyman, Pllb lic Serv. Corp.