Opinion ID: 835784
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Obligation of Successive Legislatures

Text: We underscore that the claims presented here, for the most part, concern contract formation and implicate what this court has described as the significant proposition that, if certain circumstances are met, one legislature may bind a succeeding legislature to a particular course of action. Id. at 13, 838 P.2d 1018. That proposition is significant, in part because [o]rdinarily it is the function of a legislature to make laws and not contracts. Campbell et al. v. Aldrich et al., 159 Or. 208, 213, 79 P.2d 257 (1938). However, as the court in Campbell went on to state: [L]egislative enactments may contain provisions which, when accepted as the basis of action by individuals, become contracts between them and the state. It is also equally well established that the intention of the Legislature thus to create contractual obligations, resulting in extinguishment to a certain extent of governmental powers, must clearly and unmistakably appear. The intention to surrender or suspend legislative control over matters vitally affecting the public welfare cannot be established by mere implication. Id. at 213-14, 79 P.2d 257.