(The Center Square) – The Buckeye Institute filed an amicus brief requesting that the Ohio Supreme Court allow a lawsuit from resident Mark Miller to proceed because residents have the right to file a lawsuit on behalf of a public entity if that entity refuses to file the lawsuit itself.
Miller’s lawsuit claims that the Cincinnati City Council used powers that it does not have to enact a zoning ruling.
“Whatever one thinks about the merits of this case, it does not negate the fact that Mr. Miller has standing to bring the case under Ohio law,” said David C. Tryon, director of litigation at The Buckeye Institute said in a statement. “Courts have limited the power of taxpayers to file these types of cases by imposing judicially created requirements. The Ohio Supreme Court should reject these unwarranted requirements and rein in this overreach.”
The rights of taxpayers to file a lawsuit on behalf of a public entity began in 1851, the amicus brief says.
The case is an appeal of a lower court ruling that Miller did not have standing to file the lawsuit on behalf of the city.
“Since then, the Ohio General Assembly has consistently chosen not to impose additional requirements on taxpayers who file lawsuits on behalf of the government when, in this case, Cincinnati’s law director refused to do so,” The Buckeye Institute said.
The Buckeye Institute says that the lower court “overstepped its authority by imposing additional standing requirements on Mr. Miller.”
