City of Los Angeles v. Los Angeles City Water Co.

Morrison, C. J.: On 'the fifth day of July, 1882,'Department Two of this Court delivered the following opinion in the above entitled case:.

“The plaintiff being the owner of water works, in 1865 leased them to Sansevaine, who subsequently assigned to others, and they to the defendant. In 1868 the plaintiff made an agreement with the then holders of the lease, by which, for an annual rent reserved, and other considerations named, the lessees and their assigns were granted the right to sell and distribute water for domestic purposes and to receive the rents and profits thereof for their own use and benefit—they, however, to furnish water for the public schools, city hospitals, and jails, free of charge; and the city reserved the right to regulate rates. This agreement was ratified by the Legislature April 2,1870. In 1870, after the defendant became the assignee of the lease, the above mentioned agreement was by ordinance modified by reducing the annual rent to four hundred dollars, which sum, it was provided, ‘shall be received in full payment for all rents due or to grow due from said water company to said city for the uses and privileges given and granted by said ordinance’ [the ordinance of 1868.]

“In 1879, the Mayor and Council of plaintiff passed an ordinance to impose monthly rates of license upon all persons or corporations not municipal, vending water for domestic purposes. This action was brought to recover such rates. The Court below rendered judgment for defendant, holding that under the lease and ordinances above referred to, it was not liable to pay any sum.

[67]“The Court was correct in its judgment. The plaintiff had already reserved a sum to he paid by defendant for the privilege of vending water for domestic purposes, and it could not change its contract in the manner proposed. The privileges granted by the lease and the ordinance of 1868 were already vested in the defendant, as strongly as they could be by a license under the ordinance of 1879. A license is a grant of permission or authority. The defendant already had permission and authority granted by ordinance and ratified by the Legislature. The city can not, during the term of the lease, of its own motion, increase the amount to be paid for the privileges granted.

“It is hardly necessary to say that the point made by the appellant, that neither the city nor the Legislature can grant or alienate any of the rights of sovereignty, has no application to this case.”