State ex rel. Ward v. Anderson

491 P.2d 865, 158 Mont. 272, 1971 Mont. LEXIS 495
CourtMontana Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 23, 1971
DocketNo. 12132
StatusPublished

This text of 491 P.2d 865 (State ex rel. Ward v. Anderson) 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
State ex rel. Ward v. Anderson, 491 P.2d 865, 158 Mont. 272, 1971 Mont. LEXIS 495 (Mo. 1971).

Opinion

ORDER AND CITATION

PER CURIAM:

In the above entitled cause, a Motion to Dismiss was filed on September 21, 1971 by Neil J. Lynch on the grounds that:

“I
“There is now pending in the District Court for the First Judicial District of the State of Montana in Cause Number 35058 an action on substantially the same subject matter asking that the same Defendant be prohibited from issuing and selling bonds in the amount of $7,710,442.00 for the purpose of acquiring for and erecting and equipping a State Highway Complex, said action having not been dismissed to date.
“II
“That the above entitled action in the First Judicial District was filed on July 6, 1971, and is still pending and is the normal and proper manner in such said action should be disposed of as has been done consistently in the past in such actions.
“Ill
“That there is widespread concern and interest in the above case by the people of the State of Montana ie. there is a question in many minds why this matter can not be handled in the normal manner and why it must be disposed in such a summary manner (20 days between the time of filing before the high court and the date of final hearing) when normally such matters require months before final disposition.
“IV
“That your petitioner is particularly concerned with the effect that a decision will have upon the people of Montana in the following respects:
[273]*273“a) The complex will place an nndne tax burden on the people in the State of Montana in that four cents out of every gallon of gasoline will be required to finance the construction of said complex.
“b) It will mean a loss of $56 million in Federal Matching monies that could be used for the needed construction of highways throughout the state of Montana.
“e) That the proposed complex is not needed due to the fact that the Federal Interstate Highway Program will be phasing out within the next five years resulting in the reduction of staff thus, such extensive office space as is proposed in said complex would not be necessary.
“d) That the complex is an extravagant waste of State monies, for the sake of example, the amount of land for said complex is 147 acres compared to the mere 39 acres for the Capitol Complex in Helena.
“e) The people of Montana have the right to vote on such an issue as this, however, the Highway Department and the State Board of Examiners are attempting to bypass the voice of the people in contravention of Montana Constitution.”

This Court then sought the district court file referred to and found that no file, other than a number, existed; such file and papers, if any, having been withdrawn by Neil J. Lynch. Upon inquiry of the district court, some rather unusual circumstances appear in connection with the purported file.

Lynch is not a party to this cause, nor has he sought to intervene herein. This cause was filed in this Court on September 8, 1971; and after ex parte presentation, we assumed jurisdiction by issuing an Order to Show Cause on the same day, September 8, 1971. In the daily newspapers, in particular the Great Falls Tribune of September 9, 1971, appeared a news story which, inter alia, contained these statements:

“Lynch, a Butte attorney, has been preparing a similar suit on behalf of Stein against sale of the highway complex bonds for introduction in district court in Helena. He had planned to [274]*274file the suit early iu July, but due to technical reasons it was never filed.
“Lynch told the Tribune that he still plans to file the suit and that he expects the two suits would probably be combined.
“Lynch contends that in addition to the unconstitutionality of the proposed bond sale, the Highway Department doesn’t need a new headquarters building, which is planned for Helena’s East Side.
“ ‘They’re not really in that bad shape when you walk through the buildings they already have,’ he said. ‘I don’t think so, anyway. You’ve just got a little dynasty here that’s trying to perpetuate itself and that’s all there is to it.’
“He says the Supreme Court matter is ‘just the attorney general’s office pushing it and trying to get it over with so they can build the Chittim Memorial’. The allusion is to Lewis Chittim, Highway Department chief.
“Lynch suspects that rather than being a true contest by opposing parties, the suit is more of the nature of a ‘friendly’ suit where both sides agree to disagree merely for the sake of getting a court decision. If that’s true, he says, he fears a ‘whitewash’ because everybody would be on the same side.
“But, he says, ‘one thing they are not going to do is railroad me. And I know darned well that’s what they have in mind — a little railroad job.’ ”

Following the filing of the Motion to Dismiss in this case on September 21, 1971 there appeared another news story in the daily newspapers, particularly in the Missoulian of September 22, 1971, where some of the quoted public statements allegedly made by Neil J. Lynch are again repeated as follows:

“A Butte attorney, trying to block construction of a $7.7 million highway building complex here, asked the Supreme Court Tuesday to dismiss a constitutional test of the bond sales that he feels is a ‘friendly suit’ backed by bond brokers.
“Neil J. Lynch, a Silver Bow County state senator, said he has pending in 1st District Court in Helena an action asking the court to prohibit the sale of the highway bond issue. He said [275]*275that case should be allowed to proceed normally through trial court to the appeal court.
“Lynch questioned why the constitutional test before the high court ‘must be disposed of in such a summary manner.’
“He asked dismissal of a suit alleging sale of $13.2 million in state bonds is illegal because the debts were not voted on by the people as required by the constitution. Bonds involved include the highway complex and $5.5 million for the state’s long-range building program.
ft ft ft ft ft ft ft ft ft
“Lynch claimed to the Missoulian State Bureau that Ward’s action was a ‘sweetheart case’ really brought by bond brokers to clear any legal cloud to assure the bonds were saleable.
“He said the bond brokers and the state both had the same objective to sell the bonds and theirs was no real adversary conflict.
*********
“Lynch had asked last July for a writ of prohibition from District Judge Gordon R. Bennett in Helena but took it back to amend it before any action was taken.
“The ease, No. 35058, was in the ‘dead file’ in the clerk of court’s office Tuesday, but Lynch said and Judge Bennett confirmed that Lynch was refiling his original application for a writ of prohibition and the action was still pending.

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Bluebook (online)
491 P.2d 865, 158 Mont. 272, 1971 Mont. LEXIS 495, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-ward-v-anderson-mont-1971.