Under the Montana Constitution, a property owner who prevails in a condemnation matter is entitled to an award of "necessary expenses of litigation."
In Wohl v City of Missoula, 2014 MT 310 11-25-2014, NO. DA 14-0161 (Nov. 25, 2014), the Montana Supreme Court concluded that property owners who ultimately prevailed after two appeals were entitled in the second appeal to recover the attorneys fees they incurred during the prior appeal.
The Dissent posits that because we rejected Landowners’ cross-appeal on their alleged civil rights violations and ruled in favor of the City on the calculation of the underlying damage award in Wohl I, this somehow mitigates against Wohls’ entitlement to attorney fees. This argument ignores the fact that Landowners plainly satisfied the requirements of § 70-30-305(2), MCA, as noted above, thus making the award of the expenses of litigation to them mandatory under the statute. The Dissent cites no authority for the apparent proposition that general “prevailing party” considerations with respect to ancillary claims should somehow trump a party’s statutory entitlement to the recovery of “necessary expenses of litigation to the condemnee” under § 70-30-305(2), MCA.Slip op. at 9-10.
Seems about right to us, since we prevailed on a similar issue in the Hawaii Supreme Court recently.
Wohl v City of Missoula, No. DA 14-0161 (Mont. Nov. 25, 2014)
