# Parish v. Pitts

> Supreme Court of Arkansas · June 3, 1968 · 244 Ark. 1239

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9776463

## Case

- **Full name:** Mrs. Dora Louise PARISH and Thomas L. Parish, ... Her Husband v. Ollie W. Pitts and the CITY OF LITTLE ROCK
- **Court:** Supreme Court of Arkansas
- **Decided:** June 3, 1968
- **Citations:** 244 Ark. 1239; 429 S.W.2d 45; 1968 Ark. LEXIS 1488
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Concurrence by Smith
- **Judges:** William M. Moorhead
- **Cited by:** 96 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9776463

## Opinion text

George Rose Smith, Justice, concurring. I join in Special Justice Moorhead’s opinion, but I should like to add a word in reply to the dissentient suggestion that our statute adopting the common law of England exempted that body of rules from judicial modification, leaving the power of repeal in the legislature alone. If that were true we would be absolutely bound to follow an English precedent announced 300 years ago, no matter how wrong we thought it to be, if no later case on the point could be found. The practical point of view, and I think the right one, is that when we adopted the English common law there was included in that heritage the fundamental common law rule that a court can and should overrule an erroneous judicial decision when it can be done without injustice to past or future litigants. That is all the court is doing today.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9776463. Public record. Not legal advice.