In Re Martinez

GIBSON, C. J.

Petitioner was convicted in the Police Court of the City of Sacramento of violating a municipal

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ordinance regulating and fixing the rates of taxicabs. On appeal, the judgment of conviction was affirmed by the superior court. Petitioner now seeks his discharge on habeas corpus contending that the ordinance is unconstitutional upon the ground exclusive power to fix such rates is vested in the Railroad Commission.- Petitioner does not claim that the ordinance is unreasonable or discriminatory but contends that the city is without power to enact any ordinance fixing taxicab rates.

Petitioner relies on section 23 of article XII of the Constitution, which reads in part as follows:

“Every private corporation, and every individual or association of individuals, owning, operating, managing, or controlling any commercial railroad, interurban railroad, street railroad, canal, pipe line, plant, or equipment, or any part of such railroad, canal, pipe line, plant or equipment within this State, for the transportation or conveyance of passengers, or express matter, or freight of any kind, including crude oil, or for the transmission of telephone or telegraph messages, or for the production, generation, transmission, delivery or furnishing of heat, light, water or power or for the furnishing of storage or wharfage facilities, either directly or im directly, to or for the public, and every common carrier, is hereby declared to be a public utility subject to such control and regulation by the Railroad Commission as may be provided by the Legislature, and every class of private corporations, individuals, or associations of individuals hereafter declared by the Legislature to be public utilities shall likewise be subject to such control and regulation. The Railroad Commission shall have and exercise such power and jurisdiction to supervise and regulate public utilities, in the State of California, and to fix the rates to be charged for commodities furnished, or services rendered by public utilities as shall be conferred upon it by the Legislature, and the right of the Legislature to confer powers upon the Railroad Commission respecting public utilities is hereby declared to be plenary and to be unlimited by any provision of this Constitution. . .