Terry v. Edgin

OPALA, Justice,

concurring specially:

The court is correct when it rejects today, on grounds of doubtful historicity, the widely assumed notion that the common-law rule of sovereign immunity from tort liability extends a shield of protection as to all county functions, governmental and proprietary. Even if I were not convinced that our result here rests on solid historical antecedents, I would nonetheless concur in the court’s opinion because, in my view, the common-law rule no longer merits our continued recognition in any form. Our commitment to that norm of judge-made law should be withdrawn prospectively for the reasons advanced in my concurring opinion in Walton v. Charles Pfizer & Co., Inc., Okl., 590 P.2d 1190, 1194-1195 [1979].