The following excerpt is from Kim v. City of New York, 659 N.Y.S.2d 145, 681 N.E.2d 312, 90 N.Y.2d 1 (N.Y. 1997):
"A person has no property, no vested interest, in any rule of the common law. That is only one of the forms of municipal law, and is no more sacred than any other. Rights of property which have been created by the common law cannot be taken away without due process; but the law itself * * * may be changed at the will, or even at the whim, of the legislature, unless prevented by constitutional limitations. Indeed, the great office of statutes is to remedy defects in the common law as they are developed, and to adapt it to the changes of time and circumstances" (Munn v. Illinois, 94 U.S. 113, 134, 24 L.Ed. 77).
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