State Ex Rel. Westlake v. District Court of First Judicial District Ex Rel. Lewis & Clark County

173 P.2d 896, 119 Mont. 222, 169 A.L.R. 827, 1946 Mont. LEXIS 64
CourtMontana Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 1, 1946
Docket8681
StatusPublished
Cited by23 cases

This text of 173 P.2d 896 (State Ex Rel. Westlake v. District Court of First Judicial District Ex Rel. Lewis & Clark County) 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. Westlake v. District Court of First Judicial District Ex Rel. Lewis & Clark County, 173 P.2d 896, 119 Mont. 222, 169 A.L.R. 827, 1946 Mont. LEXIS 64 (Mo. 1946).

Opinions

MR. JUSTICE MORRIS

delivered the opinion of the court.

*224 Petition for writ of supervisory control.

This controversy was before us in case No. 8655, 167 Pac. (2d) 588, 591, and reference is hereby made .to that ease for the scope of the pleadings and proceedings as presented and determined at that time.

In some of the pleadings and briefs the plaintiff is referred to as the respondent and in others the intervenors are referred to as relators. In order to avoid confusion the parties will be referred to in this opinion as the plaintiff, the defendants and the intervenors.

In the original case, O. L. Brackman of Helena, Montana, a retail grocer and dealer in other related food products, commenced an action in the district court of the first judicial district against the commissioner of agriculture of the state of Montana and others, alleging, among other things, that sections 2620.45 and 2620.46 of the Political Code, Rev. Codes 1935, providing for a license tax on oleomargarine, are in violation of certain constitutional provisions. The attorney general of Montana answered for and on behalf of the commissioner of agriculture and the other state officials named as defendants. Intervenors, who are dairymen and butter makers, and whose products are in competition with oleomargarine, filed their petition for leave to intervene, alleging certain facts in support of their contentions to the effect that their rights were jeopardized by certain admissions made by the attorney general in his answer to the Brackman complaint and that relators’ property rights would not be adequately protected unless they were permitted to be heard in their own behalf. Thereupon the trial judge made and entered an order granting relators’ petition to intervene and their complaint in intervention was duly filed. The plaintiff moved to strike the complaint in intervention and after argument the motion was granted and the intervenors came to this court seeking a writ of supervisory control. That action we have referred to above as cause No. 8655. By our decision in that case the lower court was directed “to annul the order striking the relators’ com *225 plaint and answer in intervention.” That order having been complied with, the intervenors filed an amended complaint and answer on May 11, 1946. On June 5th the plaintiff filed a combined general and special demurrer to the intervenors’ complaint and answer. Paragraphs Y and VI of such demurrer set out the grounds upon which the complaint in intervention was attacked in these words:

“V. That said amended complaint in intervention and accompanying answer failed to set forth facts sufficient to show such an interest of the plaintiff in intervention in the matter of litigation, in the success of either of the parties, or an interest against both, as contemplated and required under the provisions of Section 9088, R. C. M. 1935, to warrant intervention.
“VI. That the interest of the plaintiffs in intervention, if any, are already represented in said litigation, and the amended complaint in intervention, and the amended answer in intervention fail to set forth any facts showing that counsel for the defendants have been guilty of any fraud or collusion so that the interests represented by the defendants are not properly represented. ’ ’

On June 17, 1946, the court sustained the demurrer. In the order sustaining the demurrer, the court said: “The Court is of the opinion that the demurrer is well taken. Section 9088 R. C. M. 1935, which authorizes intervention, was borrowed from California, after the highest court of that State had placed its construction upon the corresponding provision, and it must be presumed that the interpretation theretofore placed upon it in California was also adopted. Moreland v. Monarch Mining & Mill. Co., 55 Mont. 419, 178, Pac. 175.

“The Supreme Court of California declared in the earl'y case of Horn v. Volcano Water Co., 1859, 13 Cal. 62, 73 Am. Dec. 569, that the interest which entitles a person to intervene in a suit between other parties must be direct and immediate in character, and not consequential. Also see Elliott v. Superior Court, 168 Cal. 727, 145 Pac. 101, 105; La Mesa Lemon Grove *226 & Spring Valley Irr. Dist. v. Halley, 195 Cal. 739, 235 Pac. 999, 1000; Drumhiller v. Wright, 64 Cal. App. 498, 222 Pac. 166, 167; City of Alhambra v. Jacob Bean Realty Co., 138 Cal. App. 251, 31 Pac. (2d) 1052.

“Idaho and Utah likewise adopted this provision from California, and follow the same rule. People ex rel. Glidden v. Green, 1 Idaho 235, 240; Utah Power & Light Co. v. Ogden, 95 Utah 161, 79 Pac. (2d) 61.

“However, it would not seem necessary to go beyond the decision of our own Supreme Court. The Court is of the opinion that State Bank of Outlook v. Sheridan County, 72 Mont. 1, 230 Pac. 1097, is controlling, requires that the demurrer be sustained, and precludes intervention in a case such as at bar until the Supreme Court sees fit to modify the scope and effect of that decision.

“In the absence of any allegations of fraud or collusion between plaintiffs and defendants it appears that the interests of the plaintiffs in' intervention are already adequately represented. ’ ’

On July 11, 1946, the intervenors came back to this court and filed a petition praying for an order requiring the district court to show cause why its order of June 17th should not be annulled and set aside- and its order of January 28, 1946, permitting intervenors to be heard in the action be reinstated and the cause proceeded with in accordance with section 9088, supra, on the merits. The writ was issued as prayed for and the matter was set for hearing and heard on July 17.

At the outset we deem it advisable to set out the contentions of the parties as such contentions are gathered from the pleadings and arguments. The plaintiff’s expressed purpose is to have sections 2620.45 and 2620.46 of Chapter 240 of the Political Code declared unconstitutional on the ground that it is confiscatory and in violation of amendment 14 of the Constitution of the United States in that.it deprives plaintiff and others similarly situated of property without due process of law and denies them the equal protection of the laws; that it violates *227 sections 3 and 27 of Article III of the Constitution of Montana, in that it denies the plaintiff and others similarly situated the right to carry on a lawful business without due process of law; that it violates sections 1 and 11 of Article XII of the Constitution of Montana, in that it assesses a tax which results in unreasonable and arbitrary discrimination and that it violates Article XII of the Constitution of Montana in that it levies a tax for a private purpose by prohibiting in large part the sale of oleomargarine and that such act is for the purpose of aiding the dairy business of the state. In paragraph X of the complaint it is alleged that the sections of the statute mentioned above were passed in the exercise of the police power of the state; that the license fee is prohibitive and is not necessary for the protection of the public health, morals, safety or welfare of the people of the state.

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Bluebook (online)
173 P.2d 896, 119 Mont. 222, 169 A.L.R. 827, 1946 Mont. LEXIS 64, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-westlake-v-district-court-of-first-judicial-district-ex-rel-mont-1946.