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Massengill v. Yuma County7/1/1969
City had a duty to furnish water for fire-protection purposes to the individual plaintiff who had requested it. As stated in this decision, the defendant owned a municipal water-distribution system in the City of Phoenix, and a municipality in the operation of a water system is a public-service corporation. It therefore had the same liabilities as a public-service corporation. The duty arose because of the relationship that existed between the City and the individual members of the general public. We stated, in Veach v. City of Phoenix, supra:
"The record shows that defendant owns the municipal water distribution system in the City of Phoenix; we have held that in operating a water system, a city is a public service corporation. Town of Wickenburg v. Town of Sabin, 68 Ariz. 75, 200 P.2d 342. It also appears to be the rule that a public service corporation is under a legal obligation to render adequate service impartially and without discrimination to all members of the general public to whom its scope of operation extends. See Town of Wickenburg v. Town of Sabin, supra; 4 McQuillin Municipal Corporations, 2d Ed., § 1829.
"In order to avoid misunderstanding we want to make it clear that under the rule we have adopted a municipality has no absolute duty to provide water for fire protection purposes to its inhabitants. However, when a city assumes the responsibility of furnishing fire protection, then it has the duty of giving each person or property owner such reasonable protection as others within a similar area within the municipality are accorded under like circumstances. * * *." [Emphasis added.]
What the plaintiffs urge here is a doctrine that the obligations of public officers are duties owned personally to each and every individual member of the public. The extent of potential liability to which such a doctrine could lead is staggering. By our decisions in Stone, supra, Veach, supra, and Patterson, supra, we stripped the shackles of sovereign immunity from persons seeking redress for negligent injuries caused by public officers, but we did not relieve claimants of the responsibility of establishing all the elements of actionable negligence.
The duty of the defendants here is patently one owed to the general public, not to the individual plaintiffs, and no facts are pleaded which would bring this case into the realm of the exceptions to the rule.
The decision of the Court of Appeals is vacated, and the judgment of the Superior Court is affirmed.
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