Show THE FIRST MOVE MADE Suit Brought Against the Electric Light Compary TO REVOKE THE FRANCHISE OVERCHARGE FOR NATURAL GAS iE SOLE CAUSE Defendant Takes Thirty Days in Which to Answer A Tnllc nritli City Attorney slclvaj Piihlic Seii tinient Aypears to be Against the Hasty Action of the Council City Attorney McKay was not slow to follow out the instructions given by the city council last Tuesday night About 5 oclock last evening he filed suit in the Third district court in behalf be-half of the city to have the franchise of the Salt Lake and Ogden Gas and Electric Light company annulled Thus I has the first move been made in the battle between the city and one of the strongest corporations doing business under its charter THE GROUND The only ground upon which the city asks to have the franchise cancelled is that the company is making an overcharge over-charge for natural gas The complaint sets forth that the Salt Lake and Ogden Og-den Gas and Electric Light company by Its acceptance of the charter from which a portion is quoted agreed to furnish manufactured gas to the citizens citi-zens of Salt Lake at a price not to exceed 220 per thousand cubic f tan t-an if water gas is furnished the price shall not exceed 150 per thousand cubic feet and if natural gas is furnished fur-nished the price shall not exceed 30 cents per thousand cubic feet and that the city far all public purposes of street lighting or buildings owned by the city for all hospitals and public buildings for charitable or religious purposes of any kind shall make a discount dis-count from the aforesaid price ot 10 per cent VIOLATED THE FRANCHISE The complaint alleges that the company com-pany has entirely disregarded the provisions pro-visions of its franchise and ha continuously con-tinuously maliciously oppressively and wrongfully violated its agreement with the city in that i has refused and still fails t furnish natural gas at 30 cents per thousand cubic feet the price stipulated stipu-lated in the franchise but instead is charging 50 cents per thousand and furthermore that the company exacts and requires of the citizens as a condition con-dition of supplying said gas in any amount whatever to pay for at least 30CO cubic feet of gas per month whether whe-ther the same is actually consumed or not not It is further alleged that notwithstanding notwith-standing the provisions of the agreement ment the company threatens to utterly disregard its terms and continue to make the excessive charges all of which is a breach of the conditions of the agreement and wherefore the city asks to have the companys charter forfeited together with all rights privileges privi-leges and franchises growing out of the same THIRTY DAYS TO ANSWER Attorney Parley L Williams counsel for the gas company was served with a copy of the complaint shortly after i had been filed in the district court and took thirty days in whidh to file an answer Thus no further legal developments develop-ments in the case may be expected until the expiration of that period TALK WITH ATTORNEY MKAY City Attorney McKay was seen at his < office in the joint city and county building build-ing last night and courteously consented con-sented to an interview The franchise of the Salt Lake and Ogden Gas and I Electric Light company he said is somewhat different from most franchises fran-chises granted nowadays in that it does not contain a forfeiture clause Nearly l charters granted now ha a provision t the effect that if all the conditions contained therein is not fully complied with it shall be null and of no effect The franchise of this efect frlchie thi company com-pany ha no such clause and therefore I it i necessary ibo go to the courts in order to obtain a cancellation of its franchise COTTONWOOD POWER COMPANY The Big Cottonwood Power com panys franchise is different I contains con-tains the forfeiture clause and therefore there-fore I am of the opinion that the council coun-cil could revoke its franchise for good grounds of course without any further legal proceedings Mr McKay said the usual proceedings proceed-ings in cases of this nature are to institute in-stitute quo warranto proceedings but he holds tat in the case of the ga company i is simply a violation of a contract The city ha entered into a contract with the company the latter ha failed to execute t pant thereof and therefore the proceedings are identically iden-tically the same as a suit on a breach of contract between two private individuals indi-viduals When the city attorney was asked what he thought of the opinions of some of the attorneys relative to the overcharge of ga a submitted to the city council last Tuesday he did not believe they had considered the matter mat-ter in its proper light They based their opinions on tile assumption that the Salt Lake and Ogden Gas and Electric Light company is acting as the agent of the New American Gas and Fuel company but lie believed tlvs would be a difficult master to establish ASSOCIATE COUNSEL Wh naked if Dickson Ellis Ellis the attorneys a reported would be associated with the prosecution the city attorney neither affirmed nor denied de-nied Lt but simply said that Jt could not be given out authonitively this being be-ing determine largely a matter for the council to PUBLIC OPINION The action of tIe city council in passing a resolution last Tuesday night annulling the franchise of the Salt Lake and Ogden Gas and Electric Light company came in for a good snare of comment yesterday Opinions are of course divided although the public feeling seems to be that the council acted too hastily The latter view i taken by the majority of the prominent taxpayers of the city and the more conservative element while others approve anything that is calculated cal-culated to strike at a corporation Many of the publicspirited people reason that this is an auspicious time to invite capital from the east for the purpose of developing the states resources re-sources and even though the council might have felt justified in the course it adopted i is not good to have i advertised to the east that Salt Lakes city council is striking in such a summary sum-mary manner at some of the capital which has been invested here Many believe that by diplomacy some compromise com-promise may be reached whereby the stigma attached to such proceedings accomplished may be saved and the desired result The council or at least the members who voted for the recissfon of the charter all feel justified in what they have done although some of them yesterday yes-terday admitted that a little more con tJ 4 < I sideration of the matter would have been the wiser course I i VIEWED BY THE COMPANY Secretary Moffat of the ga company was seen and asked what the effect of the councils action would have on the furnishing of ga and light for the present None at all he replied The company com-pany is no at l leery about the situation sit-uation No company or private individual in-dividual can b deprived of his property proper-ty without due process of law and when the time comes we will be able to demonstrate that we are right in the matter I Further than this Mr Moffat declined to express himself but referred the re i porter to Parley L Williams the company com-pany attorney who had full charge of the case Mr Williams views in the matter however were fully set forth in the opinion as submitted to the counci and published in yesterdays yester-days Herald hence he had nothing further to say |