CORPORATION OF THE CITY OF CUMBERLAND v. CUMBERLAND ELECTRIC LIGHT COMPANY APPEAL by the appellant from the decision of the Court of Appeal for British Columbia (1), affirming the judgment of the Supreme Court, Macdonald C.J., which in turn had dismissed an appeal from the award of two arbitrators. An arbitration was held under the authority of The Arbitration Act, R.S.B.C., 1924, c. 13, and was to determine the price which the city of Cumberland was to pay for the undertaking, property rights and privileges of the Cumberland Electric Light Company Limited. On the 19th of December, 1901, the city of Cumberland entered into an agreement with the Cumberland Electric Light Company giving the company the right to instal and operate an electric light plant within the municipality, such rights to exist for a period of fifty years, subject to the right of the municipality to purchase the undertaking, property rights and privileges of the company at any time at a price agreed upon, or in default of agreement, as found by arbitration. In 1929 the municipality decided to take over the undertaking, and as the parties could not come to terms as to price, arbitrators were appointed and made an award, fixing the value of the undertaking, property rights and privileges of the company at $74,000, and they found that of this sum of $74,000 the sum of $36,000 was the value of the physical assets, the " physical assets " being defined as made up of the " fixed assets and supplies on hand."
The Court of Appeal held that the agreement was giving the city the right to purchase the whole undertaking; that the submission was to assess the value of the " undertaking, property rights and privileges of the company," and that the price to be paid should represent the value of the whole