Pierce Butler

“ The state's right to recover depends upon the validity of an act of the Legislature (chapter 252, Laws of 1907) . The city asserts that this act offends against the contract clause of the Constitution of the United States, and that it takes property owned by the city in its private or proprietary capacity for public use without just compensation and without due process of law, in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. ”

“ In New Jersey it has been held that within the limits prescribed by the state Constitution, the Legislature may delegate to municipalities such portion of political power as they may deem expedient, withholding other powers, and may withdraw any part of that which has been delegated. ”

“ It has been held that municipalities are not liable for such acts and omissions in the exercise of the police power, or in the performance of such municipal faculties as the erection and maintenance of a city hall and courthouse, the portection of the city's inhabitants against disease and unsanitary conditions, the care of the sick, the operation of fire departments, the inspection of steam boilers, the promotion of education and the administration of public charities. ”

“ The state, therefore, as its pleasure may modify or withdraw all such powers, may take without compensation such property, hold it itself, or vest it in other agencies, expand or contract the territorial area, united the whole or a part of it with another municipality, repeal the charter and destroy the corporation. ”

“ Recovery is denied where the act or omission occurs in the exercise of what are deemed to be governmental powers, and is permitted if it occurs in a proprietary capacity. The basis of the distinction is difficult to state, and there is no established rule for the determination of what belongs to the one or the other class. ”

“ The city claims the right to take from the Delaware river all the water that it requires, without limitation as to quantity and without license fee for any part thereof, and that such right was acquired by the president and directors of the Trenton Waterworks (hereinafter called the water company) by grant direct from the state March 24, 1852, and that the city acquired this right by purchase from the water company. ”

“ They do not apply as against the state in favor of its own municipalities. We hold that the city cannot invoke these provisions of the federal Constitution against the imposition of the license fee or charge for diversion of water specified in the state law here in question. ”

“ Power to own, maintain and operate public utilities, such as waterworks, gas and electric plants, street railway systems, public markets, and the like is frequently conferred by the states upon their cities and other political subdivisions. ”

“ Hartford Bridge Co., 10 How. 511, 533, 534, 536, 13 L. Ed. 518, it appeared that for many years a franchise to operate a ferry over the Connecticut river belonged to the town of Hartford, that upon the incorporation of East Hartford the Legislature granted to it one-half of the ferry during the pleasure of the General Assembly, and that subsequently, after the building of a bridge across the river, the Legislature discontinued the ferry. It was held that this was not inconsistent with the contract clause of the federal Constitution. ”