Bankers Trust Co. v. Raton, 258 U.S. 328 (1922)

Bankers Trust Co. v. City of Raton

No. 167

Argued March 16, 17, 1922
Decided April 10, 1922
258 U.S. 328

APPEAL FROM THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES

FOR THE DISTRICT OF NEW MEXICO

Syllabus

1. Where there were two statutes, an earlier empowering cities to erect waterworks, if authorized by a majority of the voters, or to grant the right to private individuals for a term not exceeding 25 years, and a later for the incorporation of water companies to supply water to municipalities, with power to occupy the streets subject to regulation by the municipal authorities, and a company entered a municipality under an ordinance, ratified by the citizens, limiting its term to 25 years, held that it was estopped by its contract from claiming a perpetual franchise under the later statute, and that, upon the expiration of the term, the municipality, as against the trustee for the company’s bondholders, could require that the pipes, etc., be removed from the streets. P. 334.

2. A bill which sought to enjoin a city from enforcing an ordinance revoking the rights of a water company under a prior ordinance and requiring removal of its plant from the streets, and which prayed also a money recovery for damages to its contract rights and trespass upon its real property, held not multifarious. P. 337.

3. In a suit in the district court by a trustee for the bondholders of a corporation to protect the corporate property, in their interest, against destruction by a third party, the corporation properly may be joined as a defendant. P. 337.

Affirmed.

Appeal from a decree of the district court dismissing, for want of equity, the appellant’s amended bill, in a suit brought by it, as trustee for bondholders of the appellee Water Company, to restrain the other appellee, the City of Raton, from revoking the company’s rights in the city and ousting it from the streets, and to recover damages.