In the 1902 case of Atlantic and Pacific Telegraph Company v. Philadelphia, the U.S Supreme Court ruled in favor of the city of Philadelphia. The dispute arose when Atlantic and Pacific Telegraph Company installed telegraph poles throughout the city without obtaining necessary permissions or paying required fees to local authorities. The City sued for removal of these installations arguing that they were unauthorized encroachments on public property. In response, Atlantic & Pacific claimed that a Pennsylvania state law granted them permission to install their equipment anywhere within any municipality in Pennsylvania without needing further consent from local governments. The Supreme Court disagreed with this interpretation, ruling instead that while state laws did allow such companies certain rights, it didn't absolve them from complying with municipal regulations or paying appropriate fees where applicable. Therefore, even though Atlantic & Pacific had a general right under state law to operate its business across municipalities in Pennsylvania; it still needed specific approval from each individual municipality (in this case Philadelphia) before installing its infrastructure there.

In the dissenting opinion for Atlantic and Pacific Telegraph Company v. Philadelphia, it was argued that the city of Philadelphia did not have the right to tax telegraph poles and wires as real estate property. The dissenting justices believed that these items were personal property rather than real estate, thus they should be exempt from such taxation. They also contended that this case had implications beyond just telegraph companies; if cities could levy taxes on any company's infrastructure in this way, it would set a dangerous precedent for other industries as well. Furthermore, they disagreed with majority’s interpretation of previous court rulings related to similar issues which led them to their decision in favor of Philadelphia.