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Bill would authorize grants for Sargent County landowners' legal fees; agencies warn of precedent
Summary
Representative Mike Schatz and landowners urged approval of HB1557 to reimburse legal fees from watershed litigation in Sargent County; Department of Water Resources opposed, saying courts, not agencies, determine attorney-fee awards and there may be constitutional issues.
House Bill 1557, introduced by Representative Mike Schatz, would appropriate funds to the Department of Water Resources to provide legal-fee reimbursement grants for Sargent County landowners who litigated a waterboard dispute. Representative Schatz and a Sargent County landowner, Leon Malberg, described lengthy litigation and out-of-pocket legal costs they said remain unpaid despite a favorable North Dakota Supreme Court decision.
Sponsor and landowner testimony: Representative Mike Schatz described a decade-long struggle in which residents paid legal bills to preserve property rights and asserted the Supreme Court ruling supported the landowners' claims. Leon Malberg, a landowner who testified remotely, told…
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