Court Opinion

ID: 9578620
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:46:48.379889+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:28:58.568614
License: Public Domain

OP ALA, Justice,
concurring:
I concur in this decision because I believe that there can be no jurisdictional time limit on the exercise of judicial power to transfer a small claim to another docket of the district court.
Our fundamental law expressly mandates an omnicompetent single-tier trial court.1 This constitutional tribunal cannot be splintered “into rigidly divided compartments with [a] tightly restricted inter-divisional movement of cases.” 2 No legislatively-prescribed time limit that affects — directly or obliquely — the inter-docket transfer of cases within the district court may hence be treated as a jurisdictional bar. A contrary construction would offend the Constitution’s institutional design for the district court.3

. Art. 7, § 7(a), Okl.Con. (1967 Amendment).

. Carter v. Gullett, Okl., 602 P.2d 640, 641 [1979] (dissenting opinion by Opala, J.).

. Carter v. Gullett, supra note 1 at 643 (dissenting opinion by Opala, J.); see also Robertson et al. v. Martin, 613 P.2d 1049, (1980).