Case ID: mont_211/html/0243-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "MR. JUSTICE SHEA", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

LELAND GROUND, et al., Plaintiffs and Appellants, v. The DEPARTMENT OF HIGHWAYS, et al., Defendants and Respondents.
    No. 83-545.
    Submitted on Briefs March 15, 1984.
    Decided July 10, 1984.
    683 P.2d 496.
    Cannon & Sheehy, Helena, for plaintiffs and appellants.
    Mike Greely, Atty. Gen., Chris Tweeten, Asst. Atty. Gen., R. Bruce McGinnes, Dept, of Revenue, Wm. Hutchison, Dept, of Highways, Helena, for defendants and respondents.
   MR. JUSTICE SHEA

delivered the Opinion of the Court.

Plaintiff Leland Ground filed an interlocutory appeal from an order of the Lewis and Clark County District Court denying Ground’s motion to certify his case as a class action pursuant to Rule 23, M.R.Civ.P. We dismiss his appeal as moot.

On August .25, 1983, Ground filed a complaint on his own behalf and on behalf of all enrolled members of the Blackfeet Tribe for declaratory, injunctive and monetary relief from the imposition of a sales tax on new motor vehicles against members of the Blackfeet Tribe residing on the Tribal Reservation.

Ground contends that he is entitled to be the representative party for purposes of a class action. However, Ground is not so entitled because he has no claim. The Department of Highways is refunding all taxes imposed on reservation Indians after April 1, 1983.

Therefore, the appeal is dismissed.

MR. CHIEF JUSTICE HASWELL and MR. JUSTICES MORRISON, GULBRANDSON and WEBER concur.