PUBLIC UTILITIES - CONSUMERS' ACTIONS TO ENFORCE PERFORMANCE OF PUBLIC DUTIES

The petitioner, suing on behalf of himself and ten thousand other consumers, sought to compel the defendant gas company to furnish gas in accordance with the terms of a rate ordinance. The defendant challenged the petitioner's right to sue, on the ground that statutes had conferred this right upon the city solicitor. Held, the statutes were not intended to abrogate a consumer's common-law right to compel a utility company to perform its public duty. Maxwell v. Ohio Fuel Gas Co., 61 Ohio App. 394, 22 N. E. (2d) 639 (1939).