United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

King Manufacturing Co. v. Augusta, 277 U.S. 100 (1928)

King Manufacturing Company v. City Council of Augusta

No. 392

Argued March 12, 1928

Decided May 14, 1928

277 U.S. 100

Syllabus

1. In § 237(a) of the Judicial Code, as amended by Act of February 13, 1925, which gives this Court jurisdiction to review the judgments of state courts of last resort in any case

"where is drawn in question the validity of a statute of any state on the ground of its being repugnant to the Constitution, treaties or laws of the United States, and the decision is in favor of its validity,"

the words "statute of any state" are used in their larger sense, including every act, legislative in character, to which the state gives its sanction, no distinction being made between acts of the state legislature and other exertions of the state's lawmaking power. P. 277 U. S. 102.

Page 277 U. S. 101

2. An ordinance of a city fixing rates for water power supplied from a canal owned and maintained by the city, is a "statute" of the state in this sense. P. 277 U. S. 114.

3. In cases where contract obligations are said to have been impaired by subsequent legislation, contrary to the constitutional restriction, the findings of state courts as to the existence and obligations of the contract are entitled to respect, but do not bind this Court. Id.

164 Ga. 306, affirmed.

Error to a judgment of the Supreme Court of Georgia sustaining the dismissal of a suit by the petitioner to enjoin the enforcement of a city ordinance fixing rates for water power.