Montana Supreme Court upholds dismissal of lawsuit over water rights law - Independent Record
The Montana Supreme Court has upheld a district court’s dismissal of a lawsuit challenging a law halting the state’s practice of acquiring partial water rights when water is diverted from private land onto state land.
A five-justice panel of the state high court this week upheld the April 13 decision of Lewis and Clark County District Court Judge Michael McMahon, dismissing a lawsuit filed by the group Advocates for School Trust Lands and two Helena public school students over 2019’s House Bill 286. The lawsuit was filed against the state of Montana, with several agricultural groups intervening on the state’s behalf.
Advocates for School Trust Lands, a group focused on policy on trust lands in the West, filed a lawsuit in 2019 asking the court to find that HB 286 unconstitutionally restricted the state from obtaining full value from its trust lands.
The new law curbed practice in which it administratively claimed a partial water right 141 times when water was diverted from private land onto leased state trust land. DNRC, citing the 1985 Montana Supreme Court decision Department of State Lands v. Pettibone, claimed that when water tapped from a water right on private land was diverted onto state trust land, the state is vested with a partial water right. Under the Supreme Court case, a water right diverted or developed on state school trust lands is a state water right and those interests cannot be eliminated without adequate compensation to the trust.
HB 286 ordered DNRC to divest of those 141 water right claims. It further required that should the state attempt to claim similar rights that it do so through court rather than administratively.
The lawsuit contended that the law harmed DNRC’s ability to negotiate lease terms with respect to water rights. It also argued that forced divestment of valuable water rights diminished the value of trust lands, thus harming the trust beneficiaries, which are mainly schools.
McMahon ruled the group failed to prove that water rights subject to HB 286 would cause state trust lands to be devalued, making those claims speculative.
Supreme Court justices agreed, writing that it is unknown what effect the law and adjudication process will ultimately have on the value of state lands.
“Advocates’ argument that HB 286 reduces the value of the school trust lands is not, therefore, a definite and concrete injury but an anticipated one that depends on the occurrence of future events,” the court writes.
Justices also found that HB 286 provides a legally adequate process.
“Construing HB 286 by its plain language as a procedural mechanism preserves both Advocates’ rights and those of the water rights holders,” the decision states.
The Montana Stockgrowers Association, one of the intervenors in the case, applauded the decision.
“It is a significant victory for water right holders and state trust land lessees across the state,” Jay Bodner, executive vice president, said in a statement. “HB 286 recognizes the value state land lessees contribute to state trust lands. They manage the land, invest in infrastructure, and serve as stewards. Having a water right holder’s property taken from them with no due process is an authority the state does not have.”
Attorney Roy Andes, speaking on behalf of his client Advocates for School Trust Lands, said they were disappointed with the decision, but noted that the court "carefully avoided wading into the merits of the state’s constitutional duties to administer school trust lands as a trust.
"The court’s opinion was a model of superior scholarship and legal writing which painstakingly linked logical syllogisms to deal only with procedural issues, leaving the merits of the case for another day," Andes wrote in an email. "While ASTL disagrees with some core assumptions on which the court premised it’s logic, we deeply appreciate the carefulness of the court’s work."
Tom Kuglin is the deputy editor for the Lee Newspapers State Bureau. His coverage focuses on outdoors, recreation and natural resources.
source: https://helenair.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/montana-supreme-court-upholds-dismissal-of-lawsuit-over-water-rights-law/article_1e91c34e-ad9e-5b84-a4b6-127af62481c5.html
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