HKB
In General
By virtue of the nature of the business they carry on and the public's interest in it, public utilities are subject, as to their local business, to State regulation exerted either directly by legislature or by duly authorized administrative bodies.[223] But inasmuch as their property remains under the full protection of the Constitution, it follows that whenever this power of regulation is exerted in what the Court considers to be an "arbitrary" or "unreasonable" way and to be in effect an infringement upon the right of ownership, such exertion of power is void as repugnant to the due process clause.[224] Thus, a city cannot take possession of the equipment of a street railway company, the franchise of which has expired,[225] although it may subject said company to the alternative of accepting an inadequate price for its property or of ceasing operations and removing its property from the streets.[226] Likewise, a city, which is desirous of establishing a lighting system of its own, may not remove, without compensation, the fixtures of a lighting company already occupying the streets under a franchise;[227] but in erecting its own waterworks in competition with that of a company which has no exclusive charter, a municipality inflicts no unconstitutional deprivation.[228] Nor is the property of a telegraph company illegally taken by a municipal ordinance which demands, as a condition of the establishment of poles and conduits in the city streets, that positions be reserved for the city's wires, which shall be carried free of charge, and which provides for the moving of the conduits, when necessary, at company expense.[229] And, the fact that a State, by mere legislative or administrative fiat, cannot convert a private carrier into a common carrier will not protect a foreign corporation which has elected to enter a State, the Constitution and laws of which require that it operate its local private pipe line as a common carrier. Such foreign corporation is viewed as having waived its constitutional right to be secure against imposition of conditions which amount to a taking of property without due process of law.[230]
Compulsory Expenditures
The enforcement of uncompensated obedience to a regulation for the public health and safety is not an unconstitutional taking of property without due process of law.[231] Thus, where the applicable rule so required at the time of the granting of its charter, a water company may be compelled to furnish connections at its own expense to one residing on an ungraded street in which it voluntarily laid its lines.[232] However, if pipe and telephone lines are located on a right of way owned by a pipe line company, the latter cannot, without a denial of due process, be required to relocate such equipment at its own expense;[233] but if its pipes are laid under city streets, a gas company validly may be obligated to assume the cost of moving them to accommodate a municipal drainage system.[234]
To require a turnpike company, as a condition of its taking tolls, to keep its road in repair and to suspend collection thereof, conformably to a State statute, until the road is put in good order, does not take property without due process of law, notwithstanding the fact that present patronage does not yield revenue sufficient to maintain the road in proper condition.[235] Nor is a railroad bridge company unconstitutionally deprived of its property when, in the absence of proof that the addition will not yield a reasonable return, it is ordered to widen its bridge by inclusion of a pathway for pedestrians and a roadway for vehicles.[236]