Justia Montana Supreme Court Opinion Summaries

Harley Howard was charged with incest and was sentenced to forty years' incarceration. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding (1) Howard was not denied effective assistance of counsel where he did not meet his burden of showing deficient performance by counsel's failure to challenge the competency of the State's two child witnesses or the admission of their hearsay statements; and (2) the district court's sentence was not augmented because Howard maintained his innocence, but rather, the sentence was within the statutory parameters for incest and was based on ample testimony relating to Howard's treatment potential, risk to his children, and numerous psychosexual evaluations.

Gary Myers owned landlocked property across property owned by Stephen and Victora Dee. Myers' property contained several dilapidated buildings that had not been inhabited for several decades. Myers filed an action against the Dees, asking the district court to grant him access to his property across the Dees' property based on the right of eminent domain. Myers based his claim on Mont. Code Ann. 70-30-102(36), which states that eminent domain may be exercised to create a private road leading from a highway to a residence or farm. The district court granted the Dees' motion for summary judgment on the basis that the buildings on Myers' property did not qualify as a residence. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding (1) the term "residence" in the statute refers to a habitable structure or dwelling place, i.e., a place where people are living; (2) in this case it was undisputed that the buildings on Myers' property were uninhabitable and that no one had lived in them for several decades; and (3) therefore, because there was no residence on Myers' property, access could not be granted across the Dees' property based on the eminent domain statute.

The district court terminated the parental rights of Mother and Father to their three Children after concluding that (1) Mother and Father had subjected two of the children to chronic and severe neglect under Mont. Code Ann. 41-3-423(2)(a), and (2) the Department of Public Health and Human Services was not required to make reasonable efforts to reunify the children with their parents. Mother and Father appealed the court's failure to require reunification efforts or to order a treatment plan prior to terminating their rights. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding that the district court was within its discretion in finding chronic, severe neglect and terminating the parental rights of Mother and Father without requiring reunification efforts.

Meril Curtis's houseguest took his credit card and made over $7,000 in unauthorized charges. After acknowledging that the charges were unauthorized and that Curtis was not personally liable for the charges, Citibank referred the account to a collection agency called Professional Recovery Services (PRS). Curtis filed suit against Citibank, alleging libel and credit libel and violation of the Montana Consumer Protection Act (MCPA). The district court granted summary judgment to Citibank, finding that Curtis's claims were preempted by the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). The Supreme Court reversed, holding that the district court erred in finding that Curtis' state law claims were preempted by the FCRA because the FCRA does not regulate collection agencies such as PRS. Remanded.