Levens v. Ballard
Montana Supreme Court
255 P.3d 195 (2011)
- Written by Colette Routel, JD
Facts
Russell and Melissa Levens (collectively, Levens) (plaintiffs) and Al Ballard (defendant) owned adjacent land. Ballard operated an open-pit gold mine on his property. Levens owned and resided on the land immediately to the south of Ballard’s property. The two property owners disagreed about the location of their shared boundary line. In 2005, Levens and Ballard attempted to resolve this disagreement by contract. Their contract added a 30-foot strip of land to Ballard’s southern boundary. In exchange, Ballard promised that no “excavating” would occur within this 30-foot strip. After the contract was finalized, a dispute arose between the parties as to what constituted excavating. Ballard argued that he could dig his mine as deep as he wanted, even if the surface of the buffer strip collapsed into the mining pit. According to Ballard, the prohibition on excavating precluded him only from occupying the surface of the buffer strip with mining equipment. Levens disagreed and sued Ballard in state district court. The district court sided with Levens, and Ballard appealed.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (McGrath, C.J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 791,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,200 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
