Lange v. Superior Court

BURNETT, J.

Petitioners are two of the defendants in • an action pending in said superior court in which the Vallejo. Ferry Company (a corporation) is plaintiff.

In the complaint the said corporation, among other things,, alleged “that on the eighteenth day of March, 1896, the city of Vallejo by Ordinance No. 132 of ordinances of said city” (a copy of the ordinance being set out in the complaint) “inconsideration of the sum of $10,151 paid said city of Vallejo by one William Whitney, duly granted, sold and conveyed to said William Whitney and to his assigns, the franchise, right, privilege and authority to construct, keep and take tolls upon a public ferry running between said city of Vallejo- and the United States Navy Yard at Mare Island for the term of twenty years from said date, which said ordinance and grant of franchise has ever since March 18, 1896, been, and' now is, in full force and effect. That on or about the twenty-eighth day of March, 1896, said William Whitney duly granted, bargained, sold and conveyed said ferry franchise- and all his rights under said franchise and ordinance to the-Vallejo Ferry Company, plaintiff herein, and plaintiff ever since March 28, 1896, has been and now is, the sole owner and holder of said ferry franchise and of all the rights and privileges granted to said William Whitney by said ordinance and by said city of Vallejo.” Then follow the allegations that ever since said date the plaintiff, by virtue of said franchise and ordinance, has operated said ferry, and that, said defendants, without any franchise or license, have for the past year established and conducted- a ferry between said points, and have carried passengers and freight contiguous to and within one mile of plaintiff’s ferry, and that these acts of defendants have resulted in substantially diminishing plaintiff’s business and the value of its franchise, and that de

[3]

fendants threaten to continue to maintain said ferry. The prayer was for an injunction and for damages. The complaint was verified.

Afterward, on March 10, 1909, upon affidavits, an injunction

pendente lite

was issued commanding the defendants “to absolutely desist and refrain from running, operating, maintaining or conducting a ferry or boats for the transportation of passengers, goods or merchandise from the city of Vallejo- or from any point within one mile of the ferry landing of said plaintiff without first obtaining a franchise or license therefor, until further order of this court.”