Melville Fuller

“ We agree with the circuit court that the clause of § 11 of the act of 1897, that 'such corporation shall not increase the price charged by it for gas of the quality furnished to consumers during any part of the year immediately preceding such purchase or lease or such consolidation or merger,' read according to the plain and ordinary signification of the words, it being a general law applicable to every gas company and to every city in the state, was not intended to fix and did not fix, a rate unalterable by either party, but simply a rate above which consolidated companies could not go. ”

“ By the state Constitution the general assembly was forbidden to make 'any irrevocable grant of special privileges or immunities,' and the general rule is that a special statutory exemption, such as immunity from taxation, from the right to determine rates of fare, or to control tolls, and the like, does not pass to a new corporation succeeding others by consolidation or purchase, in the absence of express direction to that effect in the statute. ”

“ It is true that after the acquisition of the other companies the city compromised with the People's Company in respect of claims for gas furnished, and also ordered the company to lay mains in streets which formerly did not have them, but this action was not equivalent to consent to the extension of the alleged restriction on rates to territory acquired under the merger, with the accomplishment of which the city had nothing to do. ”