Source: Montana Law Week

APPEAL BOND: Appeal of investment accounts interpleader dismissed at request of Appellant for inability to post bond… order.

Dennis Bohnert has an investment account, a traditional IRA, and a Roth IRA with Edward Jones. His stepdaughter Lisa Copiskey filed a motion in Tribal Court in 9/15 contending that they belong to her. Tribal Court granted the motion and prohibited Bohnert from dissipating any funds. Copiskey requested that Jones not release any funds to Bohnert. He requested access to the accounts for living expenses and defense costs. Both appealed to Tribal Appeals Court in 5/16 contesting the orders. Jones placed a hold on the accounts and advised that it would release funds to Bohnert if the parties agreed on an amount. Because they continued making competing demands to the funds, Jones filed an interpleader in 9th Judicial Dist. Court. Bohnert opposed the interpleader and counterclaimed against Jones. Judge Best dismissed the counterclaim and awarded Jones $24,959 attorney fees & costs, 2/3 apportioned to Bohnert. (MLW 1/28/17). Bohnert appealed and moved for a stay and waiver of appeal bond, which Jones opposed. The motion was denied 4/18/17. Bohnert filed 2 motions in the Supreme Court seeking the same relief and both were also denied. He now moves to dismiss his appeal due to the fact that he has made “numerous attempts to obtain the funds to prosecute his appeal, i.e. the purchase of a Supersedeas Bond from a commercial surety,” by moving for a stay and waiver of bond in District Court and the Supreme Court in view of Jones withholding monies totaling $286,005.80 and he is unable to sell his home and cannot borrow against it due to Jones’ judgment lien.

For good cause shown, Bohnert’s appeal is dismissed.

Source: Michael Wright, Bozeman Chronicle Staff Writer

Yellowstone National Park will replace a stretch of sewer line sometime over the next two years in an attempt to solve arsenic problems that led to a lawsuit against the park last year.

A U.S. Department of Interior attorney sent a letter to an attorney for the Gardiner-Park County Water and Sewer District that says Yellowstone plans to remove 2,700 feet of clay sewer line near Mammoth Hot Springs and replace it with PVC pipe.

The district sued the National Park Service in December 2016 because of heightened arsenic levels in its sludge ponds that it attributes to Yellowstone National Park.

The Interior attorney, Colleen Burnidge, wrote that the pipe project may take two years to complete, but they think it will help solve the problem.

“We believe that this project will address arsenic inflow and infiltration into the District’s sewage line,” she wrote.

Yellowstone National Park spokeswoman Morgan Warthin said in an email that the project has been funded and would begin either this year or next year. She couldn’t say how much the project would cost or whether it was a result of the lawsuit or a previously planned improvement.

She said they couldn’t give out further details because it’s part of a lawsuit.

Todd Shea, an attorney for the Gardiner-Park County Water and Sewer District, declined to comment.

The Gardiner-Park County Water and Sewer District sued Yellowstone in December 2016 over high levels of arsenic found in the district’s sewage treatment facilities. The district asked the court to force Yellowstone to give the district money, fix the leak and monitor its sewer lines in the future.

Sewage from Mammoth Hot Springs has gone to the district’s treatment facilities north of Gardiner for years. The district uses sludge ponds to treat wastewater, and the ponds need to be emptied periodically. Sludge removal is expensive, and high arsenic levels make it even more expensive.

According to the complaint, an engineer told the district in February 2015 that high levels of the odorless chemical were entering the treatment facility. The engineer also said that 95 percent of the arsenic was coming from Yellowstone, and testing showed the park’s sewage had arsenic levels nearly 40 times that of the Gardiner sewage.

The Montana Department of Environmental Quality had directed the district to empty the ponds, but the engineer recommended they wait to do so until the park fixed its arsenic problems, according to the complaint.

The district told the park in a 2015 letter that it couldn’t drain its sludge ponds until the arsenic problem from the park was solved. In 2016, the park finally responded, saying there likely wouldn’t be funding to fix the problem until 2020.

The district sued in December 2016, asking both for the park to fix the arsenic leak and to help pay for sludge removal — the cost of which was estimated at $2 million.

Funding has apparently come through for the project, according to the Interior Department letter, which was attached to a court filing that essentially puts the lawsuit on hold. The letter says the project will replace “deteriorated sewer lines” between the youth camp and Mammoth. The youth camp is south of the park headquarters and the Mammoth Terraces.

There is no mention of what the Park Service might contribute to the sludge removal — the other claim in the lawsuit — but Burnidge did write that they hope “the parties can work together to resolve any issues.”

Written by: Michael Wright,  Bozeman Daily Chronicle Staff Writer 

A pair of Park County developers are taking their spat with the local water district to the Montana Supreme Court after a district judge ruled against them.

Max and Sue Berg, represented by attorney Karl Kneuchel, have filed a notice of appeal with the state’s high court in their case against the Gardiner-Park County Water District over the abandonment of a water pipe that served their subdivision near Gardiner.
A Park County district judge earlier this year ruled against them and ordered them to pay the district more than $666,000 in damages.

Kneuchel, the Bergs’ attorney, did not return a call seeking comment before deadline. Todd Shea, the attorney representing the water district, declined to comment because of the appeal.

The Bergs are the developers of the Fort Yellowstone subdivision north of Gardiner along Highway 89. Court documents say they got designs for the subdivision and water and sewer lines approved by the Montana Department of Environmental Quality in 1993.

An existing sewer line that served Mammoth and Gardiner was going to serve the subdivision, but the water line needed to be extended. According to court documents, the Bergs built the extension on the slope between the highway and the Yellowstone River but never built a retaining wall, which was required by the DEQ to stabilize the hillside.
In 2007, an engineering firm warned the water district that the water line might rupture because of erosion caused by the lack of a retaining wall. Court documents say that the engineering firm warned the district that the pipe’s failure could bust the sewer line as well, and potentially result in “millions of gallons of raw sewage” being washed into the Yellowstone River.

Court documents say the water district decided to disconnect the Bergs’ water line and install a new one above the subdivision. Around the same time, DEQ asked the Bergs to confirm whether the water line was built according to the plans, which included a retaining wall. That led to DEQ revoking their permit for the subdivision in 2009.

The Bergs later sued the water district in Park County District Court, arguing that the district’s decision to abandon their water line was detrimental to their subdivision. They asked for upward of $2 million in damages.

The water district denied their claims and in turn countersued the Bergs. Park County District Judge David Cybulski ruled in their favor in late August.

The Bergs’ notice of appeal to the Supreme Court was filed in early October. Formal briefs that lay out their argument will follow.