UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT DECISIONS ON-LINE

The charter of the Town (now City) of Oakland, in California, which conferred upon the corporation power to regulate ferries, did not give an exclusive power, and therefore the corporation did not possess the power to confer upon others an exclusive privilege to establish them.

The difference pointed out between this charter and those grants which are exclusive.

Minturn filed his bill against the defendants, claiming a right, under the authorities of the Town of Oakland, to establish a ferry, exclusively, between the City of San Francisco and the City of Oakland. The bill prayed for a perpetual injunction to restrain the defendants from running the steamboat San Antonio or any other steamboat or vessel between the two places. The defendants demurred to the bill, and the circuit court sustained the demurrer. The complainant appealed to this Court.