City of Tahlequah v. Lake Region Electric, Cooperative, Inc.

OPALA, J.,

with whom WATT, V.C.J., KAUGER and SUMMERS, JJ., join, dissenting.

¶ 1 The court holds today that a municipal condemnor's right of eminent domain (to compel the sale of an electrical-generation system) is enforceable by a "special statutory proceeding" whose prosecution does not qualify as rested upon a "cause of action." Only the latter stands protected by the provisions of Art. V § 52, Ok. Const.,1 from retro*472spective legislative tampering.2 I cannot accede to this view. The Constitution's § 52 shield protects from retrospective repeal all those claims for which the courts are…