People ex rel. Brooklyn City Railroad v. Nixon

Headnote

Railroads—franchises—■right of street surface railway to charge more than one five-cent fare for each passenger carried from any point on its line to any other point on its line under existing franchises.

People ex rel. Brooklyn City R. R. Co. v. Nixon, 193 App. Div. 746 , affirmed.

Appeal from an order of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in the first judicial department, entered December 23, 1920, which sustained, a writ of certiorari and annulled a determination of the Public Service Commission, first district, forbidding the relator to exact more than a single fare of five cents from any passenger for one continuous ride from any point on its Flatbush avenue fine to any other point thereon within the limits of the city of New York. The relator, organized in 1853, had its municipal consent from Brooklyn in that year with the right to a five-cent fare within the city. In 1860 it extended into Flatbush, a country town, and the consent fixed a five-cent fare within the town limits. In 1892 and 1894 it extended into the neighboring town of Flatlands under consents silent as to fares. It charged one fare of five cents in the city and a second fare in the country until it leased all its roads in 1893 to the Brooklyn Heights Railroad Company. The lessee charged only one fare. The lease was abrogated in 1919 and the relator received back its railroads and on the Flatbush avenue line put into effect its old schedule and exacted the old fare of ten cents, only it moved the second fare point further out into the country, giving a longer ride for the first fare. Thereupon, after investigation, the public service commission made its order forbidding the exaction of the second fare. The order was reviewed by certiorari in the Appellate Division, first department, and annulled, and the city and the public service commission appeal.