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Montana Farm Bureau Concerned about Supreme Court Case
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- Created on Thursday, 05 November 2009 17:39
In a recent case before the Montana Supreme Court, in which the Montana Farm Bureau Federation (MFBF) participated, the State of Montana argued that it now owned the bed of navigable rivers underlying many diversion points on those rivers.This argument turns more than 100 years of legal precedence on its head and may compromise water rights for many of Montana’s ranchers and farmers. On Wednesday, September 16, 2009, the Montana Supreme Court heard oral argument on PPL Montana, LLC v. State of Montana. After years of litigation, the District Court ruled that PPL, a power generation company, owed the state multi-millions of dollars because the land under their dams is now deemed to be school trust lands. This ruling seems innocuous until one realizes that if PPL’s diversions are school trust lands, then so are many farmers’ and ranchers’ diversions. Basically, in one fell swoop the District Court reclassified numerous acres as school trust lands and determined what many landowners believe is their private property now belongs to the State of Montana. Ironically landowners adjoining many of these streams have been paying taxes on the beds of the streams for years. Legislation during the 61st Legislative session addressed several of these issues but the basic premise of navigable river beds being part of the school trust has yet to be determined.
In its brief, Farm Bureau stated, "Historically, in settling and developing the state, Montana’s farmers and ranchers have been encouraged to make use of the State’s streambeds. Those lands were never subject to the school trust and MFBF members have never been charged to use them. If this Court were to grant the right to the school trust to demand top dollar for streambed access, it could well spell the end of agriculture in Montana as we know it, and as our ancestors who settled this great State knew it."
At the hearing, when asked why the State waited 110 years to assert its right to these lands, the State’s counsel said it was because of the rulings in Montrust and Curran that made it realize it now has rights. Montrust was a 1999 case in which the advocacy group, Montanans for the Responsible Use of School Trust sued the State of Montana arguing the state had violated its duty to obtain full-market value of all school trust lands. Curran was a 1984 case in which the Court determined that the public had a right to stream access within the high-water mark.
"The state’s property grab by ‘recognizing’ the property re-classification of beds of rivers as State property puts the problems caused by Montrust and Curran on steroids," said Montana Farm Bureau Federation Executive Vice-President, Jake Cummins. "The lower court’s determination to reclassify the beds of navigable rivers as school trust land is a violation of Farm Bureau members’ due process and private property rights, which is why we participated in the case with friend of the court briefs."
MFBF asked the Supreme Court to reverse the District Court’s ruling that streambeds are school trust lands and to reverse the holding that the landowner had to pay the State based on a profit-sharing valuation for the use of the land re-classified as school trust lands by the District Court.
