Meyer v. Montana Power Co.3/22/2005
Submitted on Briefs: September 11, 2003
The City of Helena (City) appeals the order of the Second Judicial District Court, Silver Bow County, denying its motion for change of venue to Lewis and Clark County. We affirm.
We address the following issue on appeal:
Did the District Court err by denying the City's motion for change of venue?
BACKGROUND
According to the pleadings, on July 13, 1999, a City bus struck an overhead gas heater in the Helena bus barn, separating a gas line. The following morning, the Plaintiff's decedent, City Bus Manager Orval Meyer, activated the electric garage door opener which caused gas fumes to explode. Mr. Meyer survived for a time. He was treated at St. Peter's Community Hospital in Helena and then transferred out of state, where he died two days later.
Defendant City is located in Lewis and Clark County and is a political subdivision of the State of Montana. Defendant Montana Power Company (Montana Power) was a Montana corporation, and its successor, Northwestern Energy, LLC (Northwestern), is a Montana limited liability company with its principal place of business in Silver Bow County.
Plaintiff Rebecca Meyer, Personal Representative of Orval Meyer's estate (Meyer), filed a survivorship/wrongful-death action against the Defendants in Silver Bow County on July 11, 2002. The City filed a motion for change of venue to Lewis and Clark County, which was denied. This appeal followed.
STANDARD OF REVIEW
Whether a county is a proper place for trial is a question of law involving the application of the venue statutes to pleaded facts. State v. Pegasus Gold Corp. (1995), 270 Mont. 32, 35, 889 P.2d 1197, 1199 (citation omitted). Thus, our review of the trial court's grant or denial of a motion for change of venue is plenary; we simply determine whether the court's ruling was legally correct. Pegasus, 270 Mont. at 35, 889 P.2d at 1199. See also Gabriel v. School Dist. No. 4, Libby (1994), 264 Mont. 177, 179, 870 P.2d 1351, 1352; Emery v. Federated Foods, Inc. (1993), 262 Mont. 83, 87, 863 P.2d 426, 429.
DISCUSSION
Did the District Court err by denying the City's motion for change of venue?
The City first argues that two of this Court's previous decisions, Gabriel and Wentz v. Montana Power Co. (1996), 280 Mont. 14, 928 P.2d 237, have established that the proper venue for trial of a combined survivorship/wrongful-death action is either the county in which the survivorship claim arose, or the county in which the wrongful-death claim arose. Pursuant thereto, the City argues that because neither claim arose in Silver Bow County, it is not a proper venue for trial of this matter.
In Gabriel, the school district, a political subdivision, was the sole defendant in the plaintiff's survivorship/wrongful-death suit. The plaintiff's decedent, Richard J. Sasse, fell from a school roof in Libby, Lincoln County, while working on a construction project for the school district. He was transported to a hospital in Flathead County where he died of his injuries. The plaintiff later filed her complaint against the school district in Flathead County. The school district moved for change of venue to Lincoln County. On the grounds that the events surrounding the injury occurred there, the survivorship claim arose there, and the school district, a political subdivision, was located there, the district court granted the motion. The district court ruled that Lincoln County was the proper place of trial under § 25-2-126(3), MCA (now § 25-2-126(2), MCA), which provided that the "proper place of trial for an action against a
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