DISTINCTION BETWEEN GOVERNMENTAL AND PROPRIETARY FUNCTIONS OF MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS

Authors

Delmar W. Doddridge, Of the Indiana Bar

Abstract

There are many places in the law where the making of a distinction has resulted in a difficulty in application that has greatly increased litigation, but there are few places where this is more true than in the distinction made between the governmental and the proprietary functions of municipal corporations. The distinction has taken a firm grip upon the law of municipal corporations and seems well settled, although its propriety as applied to particular subjects may be doubted. The terminology of the distinction is in itself productive of doubt, the function or duty in the one branch being denominated "governmental", "public", "legislative", "judicial", "discretionary", and in the other, "proprietary", "private", "corporate" and "municipal". This mixing of terms has had a tendency to confuse the courts at a point where great confusion exists along other lines.

Recommended Citation

Delmar W. Doddridge, DISTINCTION BETWEEN GOVERNMENTAL AND PROPRIETARY FUNCTIONS OF MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS, 23 Mich. L. Rev. 325 (1925).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol23/iss4/2