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City Of Cleveland V. Cei: A Case Study In Attempts To Monopolize By Regulated Utilities, Barry Kellman, Nicholas J. Marino

Cleveland State Law Review

In Cleveland, Ohio a legal controversy had developed which compels the judiciary to evaluate the limits of competition. Seventy years of head-to-head combat between a large investor-owned electric system and a smaller city-owned company has entered the federal courts as an issue to be resolved under section two of the Sherman Act. The precise issue is whether a refusal by the larger utility to sell or wheel power to the smaller utility constitutes an illegal act of monopolization. To resolve this issue, the judiciary must superimpose upon a stormy political dispute an abstract formulation of proper and improper business conduct. …