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Test Of Sovereign Immunity For Municipal Corporations, Howard H. Fairweather

Cleveland State Law Review

In a recent Ohio case, the Supreme Court handed down a unanimous opinion that a municipality that voluntarily owns and operates a swimming pool primarily for the benefit of its citizens (who might be interested), does so in the exercise of a proprietary function and is answerable for its negligence. Both the courts and legal writers have long recognized the problem of distinguishing between governmental and proprietary functions. And as it appears that the distinction will be with the courts for at least some time to come, the real problem is to rexamine the tests to see if a workable …