Howard v. State

This appeal results from an action by a developer, Ivan Howard, against the State Department of Military Affairs (hereinafter the State) for inverse condemnation. Following a jury verdict for the State in the First Judicial District, Broad-water County, the trial court granted Howard’s motion for a new trial. The State appeals.

This dispute involves 183 acres in the Limestone Hills area southwest of Townsend, Montana. The land was owned by sheep ranchers, the Toma family, from the 1920s until 1978. In 1978 Robert Bateman and Ivan Howard purchased the land, made up of eleven patented mining…