Rufus Wheeler Peckham

“ We can appreciate the argument that the village had no right to build and use its own plant during the running of the five years' contract, but we fail to see the force of the claim that, on account of once making a contract with the plaintiff for five years, the village irrevocably bound itself by an implied contract never to build its own plant without taking by condemnation the property of the plaintiff if the parties could not agree on terms of purchase. ”

“ The very fact that the taking of the plant of a private existing company was not made a condition for the exercise of the authority to build, granted the village by the act of 1875, shows there was no implied contract to take such property. The right to build was specifically given to the village under the act of 1785, whether any private company existed or not, and that right to build was no where in the statute conditioned upon a taking by the village of the plant of the private company. ”

“ The views above expressed show that there was no such contract as claimed by the plaintiff, and consequently no impairment of the obligations of any contract, and there has been no taking of plaintiff's property, nor has it been denied by the state the equal protection of the laws. The judgment of the Court of Appeals of New York is right, and must therefore be affirmed. ”