SB 52 Montana Senate · 2025 Regular Session

Create Montana Court of Chancery

SB 52 proposed creating Montana's Court of Chancery to handle specialized cases in business law, land use, and constitutional disputes. It would have jurisdiction over matters like contract breaches, business restructurings, land permits (excluding local zoning), and cases exceeding $80,000 in monetary value. Key provisions included a 150-day case resolution target, mandatory arbitration/mediation options, and three specialized judges appointed by the governor. The bill was withdrawn and died in process (2025) and never became law, so it did not affect any current legal procedures.

Bill status died 1 of 4 stages cleared

Introduction

Dec 2024

Committee Review

Floor Vote

Governor

Introduced Dec 16, 2024 Last action May 23, 2025

Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

LC1440.pdf → SB0052_1.pdf · 3 edits

MINOR

The bill was renumbered from LC 1440 to SB 52, indicating a shift from a legislative committee proposal to a formal Senate bill. A key substantive change involves formatting the monetary threshold for civil cases from '$80 thousand' to '$80,000' for consistency. Minor text adjustments were made to the description of the court's jurisdiction over land use permits.

Scope change

The bill's scope regarding the court's jurisdiction over land use permits was slightly clarified by changing the wording from 'grantor denial' to 'grant or denial', ensuring the court can hear cases regardless of whether a permit was approved or rejected.

TECHNICAL

The monetary threshold for filing cases was updated from '$80 thousand' to '$80,000' to ensure consistent formatting and clarity.

The bill number was changed from LC 1440 to SB 52, and page headers were updated to reflect the new Senate bill status.

SCOPE

The jurisdiction clause regarding land use permits was changed from 'grantor denial' to 'grant or denial', broadening the court's authority to cover both the approval and rejection of such permits.

Floor votes

How they voted

No floor votes recorded yet.

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Amendments

Feb 12, 2025

Amended

(S) Tabled in Committee - (S) Judiciary

upper

Jan 7, 2025

Committee

(S) Referred to Committee - (S) Judiciary

upper

Dec 16, 2024

Introduced

(S) Introduced

upper

1 primary · 0 co-sponsors