First National Bank v. Sourdough Land & Cattle Co.

558 P.2d 654, 171 Mont. 390, 1976 Mont. LEXIS 555
CourtMontana Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 30, 1976
DocketNo. 13530
StatusPublished

This text of 558 P.2d 654 (First National Bank v. Sourdough Land & Cattle Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Montana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
First National Bank v. Sourdough Land & Cattle Co., 558 P.2d 654, 171 Mont. 390, 1976 Mont. LEXIS 555 (Mo. 1976).

Opinion

MR. JUSTICE JOHN C. HARRISON

delivered the opinion of the Court.

This is an action in interpleader brought by the First National Bank in Bozeman (Bank) naming Sourdough Land and Cattle Company (Sourdough), the Montana Educational Broadcasting Commission and the State of Montana as defendants.

[392]*392Sourdough sought to satisfy a judgment against the state of Montana by garnisheeing State funds held by the Bank. The judgment was in the amount of $220,000. It arose out of the refusal of a special session of the legislature to appropriate money to continue lease payments on a lease entered into by the Montana Educational Broadcasting Commission. The Commission was specifically directed by the legislature not to pay any future monies to Sourdough on the lease. Sourdough filed suit asking damages of $751,445.81 as the amount due for the breach of the ten year lease. As provided by section 83-606, R.C.M.1947, negotiations toward settlement began. A stipulation by the board of examiners for the state of Montana, such board consisting of Thomas L. Judge, Governor, Frank Murray, Secretary of State, and Robert L. Woodahl, Attorney General, was entered into for the compromise and settlement of the contractual claim against the state in the amount of $220,000. Judgment was entered in that amount and presented to the special session of the Forty-fourth Legislative Assembly which was called by a proclamation of the governor and limited to:

1. Enactment of the six mill property tax levy authorized by section 84-3804, R.C.M.1947.

2. Amendment of the general appropriation bills, House Bills 264, 269, 271, 289 and 712, to appropriate and authorize expenditure funds, the receipt of which was not anticipated when the legislature met in regular session. No action was taken by that body to satisfy the judgment.

Thereafter, Sourdough caused the sheriff of Gallatin County to execute upon the $220,000 on deposit with the First National Bank in Bozeman. The Bank furnished a certified check in that amount from an account of the state but brought this action seeking to have Sourdough and the state interplead their claims and to have the court adjudicate the rights of the parties to the money.

The district court found (1) that the state was not a judgment creditor within the meaning of that term as used in Chapter 58, [393]*393Title 93, R.C.M.1947; (2) that there was one remedy for Sourdough pursuant to section 83-607, R.C.M.1947; (3) that the special session was not the legislative assembly next succeeding the date of judgment; and (4) that the term referred to was the Forty-fifth Legislative Assembly meeting in 1977.

The issues presented for review are:

(1) Is the state of Montana a “judgment debtor” within the meaning of Chapter 58, Title 93, R.C.M.1947, thus allowing Sourdough to levy upon the monies of the state on deposit with the Bank?

(2) Is section 83-607, R.C.M.1947, the sole means of obtaining satisfaction of a judgment against the state?

(3) To what does the term “legislative assembly” refer and was the special session the “legislative assembly of the state of Montana next succeeding the date of judgment” within the meaning of section 83-607?

(4) If the state is not subject to execution and if the sole means of satisfying a judgment against the state is pursuant to section 83-607, and if the special session was the legislative assembly next succeeding the judgment, and since that body did not appropriate funds to pay the judgment, then what remedy does Sourdough have?

On the first issue, whether the state is a “judgment debtor” Sourdough makes several arguments. It argues there is nothing in Chapter 58, Title 93, R.C.M.1947, which either excludes or includes the state. By analogy to the definition of debt in section 18-101, R.C-M. 1947, which is general and could be read to include the state as a debtor, Sourdough argues that therefore the state can be a debtor and thus a judgment debtor. Sourdough points to State of Montana, Dept. of Soc. & Rehab. Services v. Hultgren, 168 Mont. 257, 541 P.2d 1211, wherein this Court found that the general rule the state is not ordinarily considered within the purview of a statute, however general, unless there is a clear manifest intention to do so, has been relaxed in modern times. This it claims is a basis for including [394]*394the state within the meaning of judgment creditor. Sourdough also argues that section 93-5814, R.C.M.1947, which exempts certain property of the judgment creditor from execution, specifically certain property of cities and counties, by implication includes the state within the definition of judgment creditor or there would be no need to exempt governmental property. Article VIII, Section 14, 1972 Montana Constitution provides:

“Except for interest on the public debt, no money shall be paid out of the treasury unless upon an appropriation made by law and a warrant drawn by the proper officer in pursuance thereof.”

It is argued that this Article does not apply, and if it did,' it would operate to harm other rights chiefly due process guarantees.

Sourdough is undoubtedly correct in observing that the language of Chapter 58, Title 93, does not explicitly include or exclude the state as a judgment debtor. The analogy to section 18-101, R.C.M.1947, definition of debtor, fails because that section is specifically hedged by the phrase “* * * within the meaning of this chapter * * *” indicating the intent that the definition not be generalized in the manner Sourdough wishes.

State of Montana, Dept. of Soc. & Rehab. Services v. Hultgren, 168 Mont. 257, 541 P.2d 1211, 1213, sets out the applicable rules:

“ ‘* * * the rule to be observed in the construction of statutes is that the state is not included by general words therein creating a right and providing a remedy for its enforcement.’
“ * * the general rule has been relaxed in modern times. Accordingly, the state may have the benefit of general laws; and the general rule has been held not to apply to statutes by which the government or a part or agency thereof is given powers rather than deprived of them, or where no impairment of the sovereign powers will result * * ” (Emphasis supplied.)

In Hultgren, the Court was dealing with the term “third person” in the context of a statute empowering a third person, who [395]*395in good faith supplies necessary articles to a child, to recover the reasonable value of such articles from the parent. It is clear that such construction would give the state power and would not impair the sovereign powers of the state.

The broad construction of judgment debtor does not result in the state gaining any beneficial powers and it does impair the sovereign power of the state. See Waterbury v. Board of Commissioners of Deer Lodge County, 10 Mont. 515, 26 P. 1002. In Waterbury the Court came to this same conclusion and quoted with approval the discussion in Merwin v. City of Chicago, 45 Ill. 133, 92 Am.Dec. 204. What was said in Waterbury

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99 U.S. 149 (Supreme Court, 1879)
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Waterbury v. Board of Commissioners
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Merwin v. City of Chicago
45 Ill. 133 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1867)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
558 P.2d 654, 171 Mont. 390, 1976 Mont. LEXIS 555, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/first-national-bank-v-sourdough-land-cattle-co-mont-1976.