Montana Code Annotated 2023

TITLE 3. JUDICIARY, COURTS

CHAPTER 5. DISTRICT COURTS

Part 3. District Court Jurisdiction

Powers Of Judges At Chambers

3-5-311. Powers of judges at chambers. (1) The judge of the district court may at chambers:

(a) issue, hear, and determine writs of mandamus, quo warranto, certiorari, prohibition, and injunction, other original and remedial writs, and all writs of habeas corpus on petition by or on behalf of any person held in actual custody in the judicial district;

(b) grant all orders and writs that are usually granted in the first instance upon an ex parte application and hear and dispose of those orders and writs;

(c) hear and determine any matter necessary in the exercise of the judge's powers in matters of probate or in any action or proceeding provided by law and any action in which all party defendants have made default;

(d) issue any process, make any order, and make and enter any default judgment; and

(e) consolidate jurisdiction in district court over a civil action or proceeding filed in a justice's court, a municipal court, a city court, or the small claims division of a justice's court when the civil action or proceeding arose out of the same transaction or occurrence as a case pending in district court.

(2) When default judgments are entered in default cases, the judge shall forward to the clerk of the court of the county in which the action is pending the judgment, together with a minute entry of the proceedings. The clerk shall incorporate the judgment and minute entry into the minutes of the court.

(3) If a jury is necessary, the judge may open court and obtain a jury as in other cases.

History: En. Sec. 477, p. 138, Bannack Stat.; amd. Sec. 624, p. 161, Cod. Stat. 1871; re-en. Sec. 684, 1st Div. Rev. Stat. 1879; re-en. Sec. 704, 1st Div. Comp. Stat. 1887; amd. Sec. 171, C. Civ. Proc. 1895; re-en. Sec. 6314, Rev. C. 1907; re-en. Sec. 8867, R.C.M. 1921; Cal. C. Civ. Proc. Sec. 166; amd. Sec. 1, Ch. 79, L. 1931; re-en. Sec. 8867, R.C.M. 1935; R.C.M. 1947, 93-802; amd. Sec. 173, Ch. 61, L. 2007; amd. Sec. 2, Ch. 409, L. 2023.