Opinion ID: 876640
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Standing to Sue Issue and Justiciable Controversy

Text: The relator as a taxpayer, property owner and elector, has standing to sue to prevent the waste of public monies, Sawyer Stores Inc. v. Mitchell, supra, and accordingly had the right to bring this action. Unfortunately, because of the lapse of time here and the necessity for the Secretary of State to comply with the election laws, expenses have been incurred and will be incurred by the Secretary of State that are unavoidable, although this action was pending. Therefore, most of relator's attempt to save public money has now gone by the boards. Nevertheless, he has standing to sue in this action. The question of whether he presents a justiciable controversy however, is a quite different question. The Initiative has not been approved or adopted, no applicant appears yet for a certificate of authority to locate a nuclear power facility and no present rights of such an applicant are involved in this case. We said in Holt v. Custer County (1926), 75 Mont. 328, 243 P. 811: To invoke the jurisdiction of a court of justice it is essential that there be involved a genuine, existing controversy calling for the adjudication of present rights involved. The courts are not constituted nor operated for the vindication of parties with respect to their conception of the correct application of the law, and it does not devolve upon them to decide questions not arising in the due course of litigation simply for the gratification of the parties or others. 75 Mont. at 331, 243 P. at 811. The controversies upon which relator relies are the possible pre-emption of the field by the federal Congress and the possible inability to comply both with the Initiative and the Price-Anderson Act. These are matters not presently before us because proper parties to raise such issues and to define and delineate the same in litigation are not before us. Accordingly, we do not find a justiciable controversy about which we must make a decision is presented by the relator's complaint.