Dyke Water Co. v. Superior Court

BARNARD, P. J. This is a petition for a writ of prohibition restraining the respondent court from hearing or trying an action, and from hearing or ruling upon the plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment in said action, both of which matters had been set for hearing. Said action was entitled “County of Orange and Orange County Water Works District No. 3, Plaintiffs v. Dyke Water Company, a Corporation, et al, Defendants, No. 66822.” The plaintiff water district will be referred to as “District No. 3.”

It appears from the showing here made that the petitioner is a public utility corporation engaged in supplying water for domestic and commercial uses in portions of Orange County, under certificates of public convenience and necessity issued by the Public Utilities Commission, which will be referred to as the “Commission.” In May, 1954, the Commission, in a proceeding before it, ordered this petitioner not to further extend its water system within the boundaries of District No. 3, or enter into any further contracts for water service within such boundaries, without further order of the Commission. This petitioner later extended its service into certain tracts, in accordance with contracts obligating it to serve water to said tracts, and subsequently those tracts were annexed to District No. 3.

[487]In July, 1955, District No. 3 filed a petition before the Commission seeking an order requiring this petitioner to cease serving water to the inhabitants of five tracts all or part of which had been thus annexed to the district. In October, 1956, the Commission made its decision, dismissing the petition as to one tract and ordering that a certificate of public convenience and necessity be granted to this petitioner as to that tract, and further ordering that this petitioner continue to furnish water service in the other four tracts involved until the further order of the Commission. It was further provided that when District No. 3 should be ready to serve the consumers in these tracts, the Commission would issue a supplemental order directing this petitioner to cease and desist from furnishing water to its consumers in said tracts. A review of that decision was denied by the Supreme Court, and the Commission then issued a supplemental order on February 4, 1958, providing that District No. 3 should serve upon this petitioner a notice specifying the exact time when it was “ready to and will serve” petitioner’s consumers in the specified tracts, and that concurrently with the commencing of service by the district this petitioner should cease serving consumers in those tracts.