"For the small consumer the cost of such a proceeding in equity [for an injunction] would be so out of proportion to the amount involved to be prohibitive. To hold that a public utility supplying an absolute necessity of modern urban life can compel a consumer to pay excessive and illegal rates under a threat of depriving the consumer of the service and then defeat …

The Supreme Court has recently looked with disfavor upon taking advantage of the poor who have little access to legal assistance and little familiarity with legal procedure.

"There is no proof that the rates collected by the city since 1921 are unreasonable or that they would have been held excessive if legally adopted. The fact that the railroad commission has entered an order permitting the establishment of the same rates that have been collected since 1921 tends to show that the rates actually collected by the city were in fact reasonable …

"When the city is collecting its water rates it is acting in its proprietary capacity and not as a governmental agency of the state."

—discuss the unequal battle between utility and customer, which renders it inequitable to place the burden on the individual to initiate court action at law or equity.

[CITATION] Urban Law Annual

[PDF] Constitutional Law--Public Utilities--The State Action and Due Process …

[BOOK] Public Utilities

[BOOK] Digest of Public Utilities Reports