Oklahoma Ex Rel. Phillips v. American Book Co.

There are two lines of authorities, one holding that a state may maintain an action in which it is the real party in interest in its own name, without a relator,1 and the other holding that such an action may be maintained only by a relator.2 Oklahoma has not squarely passed upon the question. In Simpson v. Hill, 128 Okl. 269 263 P. 635, 56 A.L.R. 706, the Oklahoma Supreme Court held that the state was a political entity or sovereign. The state being an entity, I fail to see why it may not proceed in its own name and right, the same as any other legal entity. Of course a state can act only by…