Group sues city, county over annexation

The annexation of roughly 100 outlying properties into Havre's borders is of f icial according to the stat e Department of Revenue, but a group of property owners is disputing the legality of the action and requesting a restraining order to halt the process.

Securi ty Nat ional Propert ies Funding II LLC, the owner of Holiday Village Mall, Northern Borders LLC CP Properties LLC, David Clausen and Patrick Newton filed the class action suit in District Court Monday, with the Hill County and Havre government named as defendants.

Hill County Attorney Gina Dahl said this morning that her office is discussing the case, but that she cannot comment on it.

Calls seeking comments from other parties involved were not immediately returned.

According to court documents, the plaintiffs are asking that the process be halted, and that they be compensated for damages and be reimbursed for double billing for services.

Each of the plaintiffs own properties that the city has annexed, but the suit claims the city did not follow proper procedure for the petition method used to annex them and that 50 percent or more of the property owners did not Sign petitions.

The city used both the provision of services and petition rules allowable under state statute to annex the properties. The suit claims that proper notice, accurate property descriptions, def ined boundary l ine of annexed properties and proper public hearings were not given by the city.

The suit also claims that an affidavit of scrivener's error substantially modified the resolutions used in the annexation.

Plaintiffs also claim that because the city used both the provision of services and petition methods to annex the properties, that state law has been broken by not repealing the use of the provision of services method before the use of the petition one.

The plaintiffs are asking that the court halt the process until the city fully complies with the law, provides a boundary, provides a written petition showing 50 percent or more of property owners have petitioned to be annexed.

"This court should declare that the County shall not comply with the City's annexation plan ... ," the court documents said, until the city follows the rules of annexation.