County of Los Angeles v. Gen. Tel. Co. of Cal.

The action is by the County of Los Angeles to collect rental from General Telephone Company of California for the use of county bridges for its transmission cables. The court denied the motion of the county for judgment on the pleadings and granted a similar motion of the defendant. The county appeals.

The company maintains and operates a telephone system in Los Angeles County and elsewhere in California under a legislative franchise found in section 7901 of the Public Utilities Code which reads as follows: “Telegraph or telephone corporations may construct lines of telegraph or telephone lines along and upon any public road or highway, along or across any of the waters or lands within this State, and may erect poles, posts, piers, or abutments for supporting the insulators, wires, and other necessary fixtures of their lines, in such manner and at such points as not to incommode the public use of the road or highway or interrupt the navigation of the waters. ”

The original legislation on the subject was a statute of 1850 (Stats. 1850, p. 369, amended, Stats. 1857, p. 171) relating to telegraph companies which read: “ § 150. Such association is authorized to construct lines of…