Must Not Cut Wires

ELECTRIC LINE ENJURES RHODE FROM MOVING.

They Claim the City Has No Right to Grant Permission to Move a Building Across Their Tracks.

The Detroit, Ypsilanti & Ann Arbor road filed a bill late Saturday evening to restrain William H. L. Rhode from moving a house across their track on Main street. A preliminary injunction was ordered issued as prayed for by Judge Kinne, the defendant being allowed to move for a dissolution upon two days notice. Robert M. Hemphill superintendent of the electric road swore to the bill. The bill recites the organization of the company and the franchises under which the road is running in the city of Ann Arbor. It further alleges "that in putting up said trolley and feeder wires a tension is put upon the same allowing only for contraction in winter and expansion in summer that will not permit of cutting and splicing as it requires a certain amount of wire to make splices, and your orator therefore asserts that if wire is cut two, points or splices instead of one would be required. That if said trolley or feeder wires are cut near a curve it is practically impossible to splice the same without seriously disarranging the curve wires."

"That whenever trolley wires are cut it is necessary that they should be replaced and spliced in the day time in order that the work may be well performed. Complainant therefore shows that the cutting of said feeder or trolley wires will tend to seriously injure the deficiency of its said electric system and that during the cutting and splicing of said wires the public will be put to great inconvenience.

'"That in the lines of your orator there is not sufficient slack so that by untying or unloosening the wires from a certain number of poles said trolley or feeder wires could be raised over a building."

The bill then states that a permit has been granted Mr. Rhode by the board of public works to move a building on Washington st. across Main st., and to do this the wires would have to be cut. It is further charged that the city of Ann Arbor has no authority whatever to grant permission to any person to interfere with the electrical system of the complainant or injure its electrical equipment or cut said trolley or feed wires. The injunction asked for is that the defendant be restrained from moving a building across the complainants tracks. Cutcheon & Stillwagon are the complainants solicitors.