Page:Parish v. Pitts, 244 Ark. 1239 (1968).pdf/13

Rh to the Men of Devon case, supra, which does not mention today. Further, the reasons given in the Men of of kings to govern, political subdivisions are not in fact the sovereign state. The language of the early decisions concerning sovereignty has little bearing on the question today. Further, the reasons given in the Men of Devon case, supra, if valid when adopted, are no longer sufficient to justify the rule of immunity. Public convenience does not outweigh the right to individual compensation for injuries suffered, and the political subdivisions are corporate entities financially capable of providing for the satisfaction of such judgments. Muskopf v. Corning Hospital District, supra. In Hargrove v. Town of Cocoa Beach, supra, it is said:

"The modern city is in substantial measure a large business institution. While it enjoys many of the basic powers of government, it nonetheless is an incorporated organization which exercises those powers primarily for the benefit of the people within the municipal limits who enjoy the services rendered pursuant to the powers. To continue to endow this type of organization with sovereign divinity appears to us to predicate the law of the Twentieth century upon an Eighteenth century anachronism. Judicial consistency loses its virtue when it is degraded by the vice of injustice." In the Molitor opinion, supra, as in others above cited, it is noted that this doctrine of immunity was created by the courts, not the legislatures, and that the eourts should correct their own errors, and so concluded that the rule was, " unjust, unsupported by any valid reason, and has no rightful place in modern day society."

Of the fear of bankrupting the political subdivision by imposing liability these several courts note the fact that no such actual case has been pointed out, Spasel v. Mounds View School District, supra; that public liability insurance was not in common use at the time the courts of this country adopted the doctrine of governmental immunity, while today it " serves private citizens and private corporations as a means of prepaying