Joseph McKenna

“ The city, it is alleged, has not attempted to comply with the contract, but, on the contrary, has made a contract with the Newman Plumbing Company to lay the laterals it desires. A simple breach of contract is therefore alleged on the part of the city. We are pointed to no law impairing the obligation of the contract. The statute under which the bonds were authorized to be issued is not such a law. It was passed before the contract was made. The breach of a contract is neither a confiscation of property nor a taking of property without due process of law. ”

“ It was decreed, as we have seen, that the drainage company had a legal franchise to build a sewer system, and that the construction by the city of a system in the immediate vicinity of the company's would confiscate its property and depreciate the value of the bonds thereof. But the bond election was declared legal, and that, under the act of Congress of March 4, 1898 [30 Stat. at L. 252, shap. 35] , the city ought to issue the bonds, as directed, for the construction of sewers, among other purposes. ”

“ To sustain the jurisdiction, appellant advances the propositions (1) that the city had the power to pass the ordinance by which it granted to appellant's predecessor and to appellant the franchise to construct a sewer system; (2) that the original franchise constituted a contract between the company and the city, and that this contract had been construed and adjudicated by the district court of the territory of Oklahoma as being exclusive, and as prohibiting the city from building and maintaining a public sewer ”