Opinion
02-24-1896
INHABITANTS OF TOWNSHIP OF BLOOMFIELD v. MAYOR, ETC., OF BOROUGH OF GLEN RIDGE et al.
George S. Hilton, for complainant. Joseph G. Gallagher and Joseph Coult, for defendants.
Bill by the inhabitants of the township of Bloomfield against the mayor and council of the borough of Glen Ridge and others. Heard on demurrer to bill. Demurrer sustained.
The bill in this case sets out that the township of Bloomfield entered into a contract with the Orange Water Company to buy water for city purposes, to be taken from the mains and hydrants of said company, already located in the streets of said township; that the township was to pay $30 per annum for each hydrant, for the term of 8 years and 6 months; that the borough of Glen Ridge was formed; that, in the territory included within Glen Ridge, 48 of the hydrants were set; and that, after the organization of the borough of Glen Ridge, it passed an ordinance regulating the use of these hydrants, which ordinance deprives the township of Bloomfield, not only of the exclusive use of these hydrants, but of any use of them. The prayers are that the defendants may be enjoined from controlling or regulating these hydrants, or from interfering with the complainant in its use of said hydrants.
George S. Hilton, for complainant.
Joseph G. Gallagher and Joseph Coult, for defendants.
REED, V. C. (after stating the facts). The same principles are involved in this case as in the preceding case. 33 Atl. 925. For the reasons there given, I conclude that the control over the hydrants, which, by the alteration of the township lines, are thrown into the borough limits, passed to the borough government. The boroughhas the right to control hydrants. P. L. 1878, p. 407, § 12, subsec. 2, subd. 5; P. L. 1888, p. 226. The township being stripped of its right to control them, it has no footing to ask this court to enjoin the defendants from doing so, or from interfering with the complainant in doing so. Decree will be advised for the demurrants.