Edward Terry Sanford

“ It has been long settled that a State may authorize a municipal corporation to establish by an inviolable contract the rates to be charged by a public service corporation for a definite term, not grossly unreasonable in time, and that the effect of such a contract is to suspend, during its life, the governmental power of fixing and regulating the rates. ”

“ It is no less contractual than the provision in section 2 'authorizing' the grantee to manufacture and sell electricity and gas to the City and its inhabitants for thirty years-upon which the Company necessarily relies as the basis of the rights which it now claims and is seeking to enforce-or than that in section 7 giving the City the right to purchase the plant at an appraised value. The provision that the grantee is 'authorized' to sell fuel gas at a rate not exceeding $1.35, clearly implies that it shall not sell such gas at a higher rate. ”

“ And where a public service corporation and the municipality have power to contract as to rates, and exert that power by fixing the rates to govern during a particular time, the enforcement of such rates is controlled by the obligation resulting from the contract, and the question whether they are confiscatory is immaterial. ”