Keen v. Mayor of Waycross

As “a citizen and taxpayer of the city of Waycross,” Keen instituted an equitable proceeding against the mayor and council of that city, the purpose of which was to enjoin its municipal officers from doing certain acts alleged to be ultra vires. The case made by bis petition was, in brief, as follows: Under a license issued by the municipal authorities, be bad “ for some years past conducted in said city a plumbing and gas-fitting business.” Early in the year 1896, the water-works commission, a co-ordinate branch of the city government, bad “entered into active competition with [him] in the…