Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar

“ It would be an anomaly in municipal administration if every corporation that desired to dig up the streets of a city and make underground connections for sewer, gas, water, steam, electricity, or other purposes, should be allowed to proceed upon its own theory of what were proper plans for it to adopt and proper excavations to make. ”

“ The evils that would follow from such a system of practice would be of great gravity to the public, and would entail endless disputes and bickerings with prior parties having equal rights. The utmost that can be said against the acts of 1885 and 1886 is that they transferred the supervision and control of the matters of excavation of the streets and the construction of underground electric systems from the commissioner of public works to the board of subway commissioners. ”

“ The contention that the statutes referred to deprive the relator of its property without due process of law is equally without foundation. This argument rests upon the assumption that the legislature could not require the electric companies to pay the salaries of the subway commissioners, as provided in section 7 of the act of 1885, as amended in 1886 ”