Puget Sound Power & Light Co. v. City of Seattle

On and prior to December 31,1918, the Puget Sound Power & Light Company, hereinafter referred to as the company, was the owner of a street railway system in the city of Seattle. On the above date the city enaeted Ordinances Nos. 39025 and 39069 with a view of purchasing and acquiring the street railway system. The first ordinance authorized a bond issue in the sum of $15,000,000 to pay for the property, and the second prescribed the terms and conditions of the contract of purchase including the form of the contract itself. The contract, as prescribed by ordinance, contained the following recitals and provisions, among others:

It was further provided that in case the agreement or any provision thereof, the ordinance authorizing the agreement or any provision thereof, or the ordinance providing for the issuance of utility bonds or any provision thereof, should be declared invalid by the courts on appeal, the agreement should cease and terminate forthwith, unless the invalidity could be corrected by the passage of appropriate legislation at the 1919 session of the state Legislature, or, in a proper case, by the passage of appropriate ordinances by the city council' of the city of…