LITIGATION
Reports from Ebensburg, Pa., state that the court has appointed viewers in suits brought against the Johnstown Water Company and the Manufacturers’ Water Company. Suits are brought by owners of property in the vicinity of the storage dam of the water companies and they allege that the water concerns, by building dams, have shut off the streams which formerly ran through their farms.
Chief Justice Gummere, of the Supreme Court, granted a writ to review action of the borough of Point Pleasant, N. J., in moving to sell property of the Point Pleasant Water Works because of the water company’s refusal to pay borough taxes for 1912. The chief justice, in granting the writ, said he was not considering arguments advanced on both sides in the light of final disposition of the case, on the ground that the legal questions involved were of sufficient importance to have them passed upon by the whole Supreme Court. The writ was made returnable in twenty days. The application was made by the water company. Arguments disclosed that on November 14, 1894, when the borough granted a franchise to the company, an agreement was drawn up whereby the water company was to give free water to the public buildings in the borough and be exempt from taxes. The contention of the borough counsel is that the agreement was against the law and therefore not effective. On the other hand, the water company says it admits that outright exemption of property holders of taxes is against the law, but that the furnishing of free water should be considered equivalent to taxes. The chief justice pointed out that the questions involved are new ones in New Jersey and the settling of these legal problems is one of interest to the whole State.
