Court Opinion

ID: 9846783
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 03:48:21.328096+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:19:49.350786
License: Public Domain

CROCKETT, Chief Justice
(concurring).
I concur but desire to add these comments.
It is regrettable to have this court importuned, in what is represented as a last minute, almost breathless urgency, to salvage and take over a failing bus line, to overturn decisional law which has stood for over 30 years. This is particularly so in a proceeding between parties who appear to be adver-sai'y on the surface only, and where it seems apparent that both sides desire the same result. Furthermore, the legislature will be meeting within a few months (January, 1969) and any proper change in basic law could well be taken care of by the regularly established law-making procedure. For the reasons above stated, I recognize that the position of the dissent is not entirely without merit. Nevertheless, inasmuch as both parties represent to this court that there is urgent necessity in the public interest to have the question answered, for the reasons stated below, I have concluded to concur with the court’s opinion.
In accordance with the principle that the law and its interpretation should keep abreast of changing conditions, in view of changes in transportation which have come about so that motor buses are at the present time the only practical means of street transportation, I subscribe to the view that the authorization of the City to own and operate a “street railway” should reasonably be deemed to mean a street transportation system; and that now means buses.
The problem as to the wisdom and the practicality of the City embarking on such an undertaking is solely for the people of the City, through their elected City government; and it is not properly any concern *342of the courts, whose function it is to pass on questions of law.