Public Utilities Act — Crossing op Street and Railroad — Railroad Commission—Crossings in City op Los Angeles.—The provision of section 43 of the Public Utilities Act of 1911, (Stats. Spec. Sess. ■ 1911, p. 18), that no grade crossings of any railroad by a street, or of any street by a railroad, shall be made without the permission of the railroad commission first obtained, that the commission shall have power to refuse or grant such permission upon such terms and conditions as it may prescribe, and that it shall have exclusive power to determine and prescribe the manner and place of making such crossings and to abolish the same, at its pleasure, does not apply^ to street openings and railroad crossings within the city of Los Angeles. This follows, whether the Public Utilities Act be regarded as a general law on that subject, and considered independently of any special authority to legislate upon that subject under the provisions of section 23 of article XII of the constitution, or be considered as an exercise of the power to legislate over the subject of public utilities specially given by that section of the constitution.

Id.—Reserved Power op Municipalities Over Public Utilities Under Constitution. — The power of the legislature to pass the Public Utilities Act is derived from section 23 of article XII of the constitution, which reserves to every incorporated city all the powers of control over public utilities relating to the making and enforcement of local, police, sanitary, and other regulations, other than the fixing of rates, which are vested in such city, unless the city by popular vote chooses to transfer the same to the railroad commission. Section 82 of the Public Utilities Act in substantially identical terms makes the same reservation in favor of cities. The city of Los Angeles has never elected to make such transfer, consequently it still retains unimpaired all its regulatory powers of control over public utilities, except rate making.

Id. — Municipal Ape airs — City Charters Paramount to General " Laws.—Under section 6 of article XI of the constitution, as amended in 1914, and as it existed prior thereto, city charters framed and adopted under the provisions of the constitution are paramount to general laws with respect to municipal affairs.

Id.—Opening and Control of Streets are Municipal Affairs.—The opening, laying out, and improvement of streets within a city, and the regulation of the manner of their use, are matters of much greater concern to its inhabitants than to the people of the state at large, and are municipal affairs, the control of which has always been deemed within the proper scope of municipal powers.

Id. — City of Los Angeles — Paramount Authority Over Railroad Crossings — Charter Supersedes Public Utilities Act. — The power to establish, lay out, and open streets and crossings thereof, and to regulate the construction and operation of railroads within the city, conferred on the city of Los Angeles by section 2 of its charter of 1889, and the amendments of 1905, 1909, and 1911, includes the power to open a street across an existing railroad, and to regulate the operations of the railroad at such crossing, as well as elsewhere within the city. The power to acquire land for that purpose applies as well to the land of a. railroad company as to that of any other person. Being municipal affairs, the provisions of the charter on the subject are paramount, and supersede general laws, which would otherwise apply thereto, including the Public Utilities Act, so far as operations within the city are concerned. Id.—Condemnation Suit—Charter Supersedes Section 1247 of Code of Civil Procedure.—Section 1247 of the Code of Civil Procedure, vesting in the superior court the power to make regulations affecting

-the crossings of streets and railroads whenever they are involved in a condemnation suit, is a general law, and was superseded as to the city of Los Angeles by such provisions of its charter.