Monrovia

Plaintiff sued for an accounting of the amount due from the defendant under its franchise to use the public streets of the plaintiff city for the distribution of gas. Plaintiff had judgment for $894.44, and the defendant appeals on typewritten transcripts.

Defendant is the successor in interest of a franchise granted in September, 1905, under the terms of the Broughton Act (Stats. 1905, p. 777). The franchise stipulated that the grantee should pay to the city annually “two (2%) per cent of the gross annual receipts . . . arising from the use, operation or possession of such franchise”. For some years after the date of the franchise the grantee maintained and operated a gas manufacturing plant within the city limits of Monrovia where artificial gas was manufactured and distributed to consumers. In 1920, upon the discovery of natural gas fields in the southern part of the state, the defendant abandoned its manufacturing plant in the City of Monrovia and since has supplied its consumers with natural gas from a widely scattered general system which reaches fifty-seven municipalities and five counties. In the operation of this business the company’s transmission lines occupy public…