Phelps v. Logan Natural Gas & Fuel Co.

Citations

• 101 Ohio St. (N.S.) 144

Syllabus

<p>Municipal corporations — Gas-rate ordinance — Abrogation or modification before expiration■ — Ordinance increasing rate valid, when■ — ■Mutuality of contracts — Specific performance — Right of taxpayer to sue.</p> <p>1. Pending the term of a gas-rate ordinance passed by the council of a municipality and accepted by the gas company, it is competent for the parties to modify or abrogate by mutual agreement the contract thus entered into.</p> <p>2. Where the council of a municipality has determined by ordinance the rates to be charged consumers of gas for an ensuing period of ten years, and the gas company has accepted the provisions of such ordinance, an ordinance passed four years later and also accepted by said company, providing for an immediate increase in the rates to be charged, is a valid exercise of municipal power, and constitutes a binding contract between the municipality and the gas company, abrogating and superseding the prior gas-rate ordinance.</p> <p>3. A taxpayer of a municipality has no vested interest in a contract between the municipality and a gas company for the supply of gas to consumers at specified rates for a definite term, such as will entitle him to maintain an action for specific performance of such contract after the same has been abrogated by agreement duly entered into between the municipality and the gas company.</p>