The question presented for our review is whether the time intervals prescribed in the Political Subdivision Tort Claims Act [Act],
The plaintiff-appellant, Blanche Black [Black], alleged that on December 11, 1981 she slipped and fell at the Tulsa International
Black commenced the present action on December 9, 1983. Two of the defendants, City of Tulsa [City] and Tulsa Airports Improvement Trust [Trust], separately demurred to her petition. They alleged that Black had failed to bring the action within the time limit prescribed in the Act, 51 O.S. 1981 § 156(C),
Black asserts error in this judgment. She contends that the § 156(C) time period then in force was tainted with an infirmity because the statute of which it formed a part [1] violated Oklahoma's constitutional prohibition against special legislation, Art. 5, § 59, Okl.Const.,
We recognize at the outset that there is a strong presumption which favors the constitutionality of legislative acts. The reviewing court will uphold the statute unless it is clearly, palpably and plainly inconsistent with our fundamental law.
Challenged statutes that differentiate in the treatment given to one group as compared with that accorded to another are commonly tested for constitutional validity by ascertaining whether [1] there has been a denial of equal protection in the federal law sense, [2] there was a taking of properly without due process of law within the meaning of both the state and the federal fundamental law and [3] the enactment is tainted by an impermissible special legislation in the state-law sense.
In Reirdon v. Wilburton Board of Education,
Due process is typically invoked to assure that individual and property rights are not taken by governmental authority without notice and opportunity for hearing.
Section 156 allowed a plaintiff up to 13 months to file a petition following the occurrence of an injury.
In an attack based on Oklahoma's prohibition against the enactment of special legislation, the general gauge for measuring a statute's constitutionality is the reasonableness of the classification and the uniformity of its operation.
There are real and vital distinctions that provide a rational basis for recognizing municipal tortfeasors as a special class.
The terms of 51 O.S. 1981 § 166 clearly provide that the Act governs all torts regardless
No offense was dealt the Equal Protection or the Due Process Clauses by requiring that suits against the government for tortious harm committed by its agents acting in either proprietary or governmental capacity stand subjected to the very same norms of liability. Moreover, in creating a separate class of public tortfeasors, the Act did not violate the state's constitutional prohibition against special legislation because the classification used is reasonable for the attainment of a legitimate objective and operates uniformly upon all members of the class.
Judgment of the district court is AFFIRMED.
All the Justices concur.
FootNotes
"* * * No action for any cause arising under this act shall be maintained unless valid notice has been given and the action is commenced within six (6) months after notification of denial of the claim by the clerk of the political subdivision. * * *"
The provisions for commencing an action were amended in the 1984 session and are now found in 51 O.S.Supp. 1984 § 157(B) [Okl.Sess.L. 1984, Ch. 228, § 5]. Section 157(B) provides:
"No action for any cause arising under this act shall be maintained unless valid notice has been given and the action is commenced within one hundred eighty (180) days after denial of the claim as set forth in this section."
Courts will uphold a statutory classification if a rational relationship exists between that classification and the state interest. Dandridge v. Williams, 397 U.S. 471, 90 S.Ct. 1153, 25 L.Ed.2d 491 [1970] and Cleburne, supra. Whenever a challenged classification is directed at a suspect class or the classification burdens the exercise of a fundamental right, the strict-scrutiny standard will be applied. Washington v. Davis, 426 U.S. 229, 96 S.Ct. 2040, 48 L.Ed.2d 597 [1976]. A suspect class requiring application of the strict-scrutiny standard of equal-protection analysis is one saddled with such disabilities, or subject to such a history of purposeful, unequal treatment or regulated to such a position of political powerlessness as to command extraordinary protection from the majoritarian political process. Massachusetts Bd. of Retirement v. Murgia, 427 U.S. 307, 313, 96 S.Ct. 2562, 2567, 49 L.Ed.2d 520 [1976]. Legislative classifications based on gender or illegitimacy call for the heightened standard of review. Under this test a law must be substantially related to an important governmental interest. Craig v. Boren, 429 U.S. 190, 97 S.Ct. 451, 50 L.Ed.2d 397 [1976].
Our due process clause in Art. 2 § 7, Okl. Const., has a definitional sweep that is coextensive with its federal counterpart. McKeever Drilling Co. v. Egbert, 170 Okl. 259, 40 P.2d 32, 36 [1935] and Matter of Rich, Okl., 604 P.2d 1248, 1250-1251 [1979].
The terms of Art. 2 § 7, Okl.Const., are:
A cause of action is a species of property protected by the Due Process Clause. In Logan v. Zimmerman Bush Co., 455 U.S. 422, 428-429, 102 S.Ct. 1148, 1153-1154, 71 L.Ed.2d 265 [1982], the Court held that an employee's right to use the Fair Employment Practices Act's adjudicatory procedures is property protected by the Due Process Clause. Any restriction on court access that abridges this property interest and imperils basic individual interests which can be vindicated only through state-monopolized means will be struck down, absent a "countervailing state interest of overriding significance." Logan, supra, 455 U.S. at 429-430, 102 S.Ct. at 1154-1155.
The gauge of reasonableness is the test used for measuring the constitutional validity of a statutory time bar. Baccus v. Banks, 199 Okl. 647, 192 P.2d 683, 692 [1948]; Tucker v. McCrory, Okl., 266 P.2d 433, 434 [1954]; Woods v. Phillips Petroleum Co., 207 Okl. 490, 251 P.2d 505, 509 [1952] and McCarroll v. Doctors General Hosp., Okl., 664 P.2d 382, 387 [1983]; see also, Landgraff v. Wagner, 546 P.2d 26, 26 Ariz.App. 49 [1976], appeal dismissed, 429 U.S. 806, 97 S.Ct. 40, 50 L.Ed.2d 67 [1977].
"The distinction existing between governmental functions and proprietary functions of political subdivisions shall not be affected by the provisions of this act; however the provisions of this act shall apply to both governmental and proprietary functions."
See also Neal v. City of Blackwell, Okl., 670 P.2d 587, 588 [1983].
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