Court Opinion

ID: 9962899
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2024-04-23 23:06:09.574774+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:20:42.632970
License: Public Domain

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                                        -4                                                    04/23/2024

            IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF MONTANA
                                                                                          Case Number: OP 24-0199

                                         OP 24-0199

 CATHY McCLURE,

              Petitioner,

       v.
                                                                        ORDER
 MONTANA TWENTIETH JUDICIAL DISTRICT
 COURT, SANDERS COUNTY, HONORABLE
 JOHN W. LARSON, Presiding,
                                                                                   FILED
                                                                                   APR 2 3 2024
              Respondent.                                                        Bowen Greenwood
                                                                               Clerk of Supreme Court
                                                                                  State of k/lontana

       Petitioner Cathy McClure, via counsel, seeks a writ of supervisory control directing
the Twentieth Judicial District Court, Sanders County, to grant McClure's motion to strike
or dismiss the February 16, 2024 Motion for UCCJEA Conference and for Emergency
Order Modifying Grandparent Visits; Request for Hearing filed by Thaddeus Hazen
LeClair in that court's Cause No. DR-45-2024-0000008. While, at the time McClure filed
this Petition in this Court, the District Court had not ruled on her motion to strike or dismiss,
the District Court issued an order assuming jurisdiction of the case, which McClure
interprets as impliedly denying her motion.
       The basis for McClure's motion to strike or dismiss is that she maintains that
LeClair improperly initiated this case by filing captioned as a "motion" rather than by filing
a "complaint" as required by M. R. Civ. P. 3. McClure seeks supervisory control of this
Court and asks it to direct the District Court to require LeClair to properly initiate the
proceedings by filing a complaint.
       Supervisory control is an extraordinary remedy that is sometimes justified when
urgency or emergency factors exist making the normal appeal process inadequate, when
the case involves purely legal questions, and when the other court is proceeding under a
mistake of law and is causing a gross injustice, constitutional issues of state-wide
importance are involved, or, in a criminal case, the other court has granted or denied a
motion to substitute a judge. M. R. App. P. 14(3). Whether supervisory control is
appropriate is a case-by-case decision. Stokes v. Mont. Thirteenth Judicial Dist. Court,
2011 MT 182, ¶ 5, 361 Mont. 279, 259 P.3d 754 (citations omitted). Consistent with Rule
14(3), it is the Court's practice to refrain from exercising supervisory control when the
petitioner has an adequate remedy of appeal. E.g., Buckles v. Seventh Judicial Dist. Court,
No. OP 16-0517, 386 Mont. 393, 386 P.3d 545 (table) (Oct. 18, 2016); Lichte v. Mont.
Eighteenth Judicial Dist. Court, No. OP 16-0482, 385 Mont. 540, 382 P.3d 868 (table)
(Aug. 24, 2016).
       Here, McClure asserts the District Court is operating under a mistake of law by
proceeding with this case in the absence of a complaint being filed. However, the Montana
Rules of Civil Procedure are notice pleading statutes. Mysse v. Martens, 279 Mont. 253,
266, 926 P.2d 765, 773 (1996). M. R. Civ. P. 8(a) requires that a complaint put a defendant
on notice of the facts the plaintiff intends to prove; the facts must disclose the elements
necessary to make the claim; and the complaint must demand judgment for the relief the
plaintiff seeks. Mysse, 279 Mont. at 266, 926 P.2d at 773. In this case, the District Court
found LeClair's motion sufficient; the fact that it was captioned as a "motion" is of no
import here. Pleadings must be construed so as to do justice. M. R. Civ. P. 8(e).
       The burden of persuasion is on the petitioner to convince the Court to issue a writ.
Disability Rights Mont. v. Mont. Judicial Dists. 1-22, No. OP 20-0189, 400 Mont. 556
(Apr. 14, 2020) (citing Miller v. 11th Judicial Dist. Court, 2007 MT 58, ¶ 14, 336 Mont.
207, 154 P.3d 1186). McClure has not met this burden in this case.
       IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED that the petition for writ of supervisory control is
DENIED and DISMISSED.
       The Clerk is directed to provide immediate notice of this Order to counsel for
Petitioner, all counsel of record in the Twentieth Judicial District Court, Sanders County,
Cause No. DR-45-2024-2,0008, and the Honorable John W. Larson, presiding Judge.
       DATED this -r-Z day of April, 2024.

                                                               Chief Justice
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