Title 7, Title 7

The clerk of the district court of the new county shall file and prepare the jury list and boxes in accordance with the general law pertaining to the duties of clerks of district court with relation to jury lists and boxes.

The name, designation, appellation, cognomen, or title of any county in this state may be changed to any other name, designation, appellation, cognomen, or title as provided in this part.

(1) Petitions for change of names must be heard and determined by the district court of the county whose name is sought to be changed. (2) A petition for the change of the name of any county in this state must be signed by a number of the legal voters who are taxpayers in the cou…

(1) The form of petition for any change of name of a county, as provided in this part, must be substantially as follows: In the district court of the .... judicial district of the state of Montana, in and for the county of ..... Petition for the change of thename of ............ …

(1) The county clerk of the county in which the petition provided for in 7-2-2503 must be signed shall compare the signatures of the voters signing the petition with their signatures on the registration books and blanks on file in the clerk's office for the preceding general elec…

Upon the filing of the petition, the clerk of the district court, upon the receipt of the cost from any voter in the county, shall publish a copy of the petition as provided in 7-1-2121. Proofs must be made of the publication before the petition can be considered and before a dat…

Such petition must be heard at such time as the court or judge may appoint, subject to the provisions of 7-2-2505. Objections may be filed in the office of the clerk of said court at any time before such date by any person who can, in such objections, show to the court or judge g…

(1) Immediately upon the rendition of any decree changing the name of a county as provided in this part, the clerk of the district court of said county shall transmit, by registered or certified mail, a certified copy of said decree, showing the date of its rendition, to the secr…

(1) From and after the rendition of the decree, the official records in the custody of the several county officers shall be styled and designated, as in each instance may be proper, with the new name of the county as provided by the decree. All printed blanks and forms, all print…

(1) All public records and property of the county existing under the former name shall be and become the public records and property of the county of the new name. In all conveyances, indentures, instruments, decrees of courts, and other records where the former name of the count…

(1) The change of name provided for in this part shall not impair or work a forfeiture or alteration of any vested rights. (2) All laws of a general or special nature applicable to the county under its former name shall thereafter apply with equal force and effect to the county u…

(1) All indebtedness and obligations of the county, whether bonded or otherwise, shall be assumed by and become the indebtedness of the county under its new name. All bonds issued by the county under its former name, outstanding and unpaid at the time of the rendition of the decr…

The terms of the district court in and for said county, as theretofore established by the court or a judge thereof under the former name of the county, shall become the terms of said court for the county under its new name and shall be held as stated, in and for said county under…

Persons who are, at the date of the rendition of the decree, the county, township, and district officers or officials and members of the legislature of the county under its former name shall remain in office and shall thereafter be the county, township, district, and legislative …

No change of name shall be so construed as to alter or modify the boundaries of the county as the same existed and were established under the former name of the county, but such boundaries shall be and remain the same until changed according to law.

(1) Whenever the inhabitants of any county of this state desire to remove the county seat of a county from the place where it is fixed by law or otherwise to another place, they may present a petition to the board of county commissioners of their county, praying such removal, suc…

(1) A petition for removal of a county seat must be filed with the county clerk. (2) The county clerk, immediately upon the filing of the petition, shall publish a notice as provided in 7-1-2121. The notice must state that the petition is open to inspection in the office of the c…

(1) The county election administrator shall verify signatures on the petition within 30 days of when the signed petition is filed. (2) If the county election administrator determines that the petition is signed by at least 50% of the county's electors who voted in the last genera…

(1) When the returns have been received and compared and the results ascertained by the board, if a majority of the qualified electors voting on the question have voted in favor of any particular place, the board must give notice of the results by posting notices thereof in all t…

Whenever any election has been held as provided for in this part, the statement made by the board of county commissioners showing the result thereof must be deposited in the office of the county clerk. Whenever the board gives the notice prescribed by 7-2-2606(2), they must trans…

(1) When an election has been held and a majority of the votes are not cast for some place other than that fixed by law as the existing county seat, no second election for the removal thereof may be held within 4 years thereafter. (2) When the county seat of a county has been onc…

The organization and corporate existence of any county organized under the laws of this state may be abandoned and abolished and the territory within its boundaries may be attached to and made a part of some adjoining county in the manner provided by this part.

(1) A petition may be filed with the county clerk of a county asking that the question of abandoning and abolishing the organization and corporate existence of the county and attaching its territory to and making the territory a part of some adjoining county be submitted to the q…

(1) It is the duty of the election administrator, within 30 days after the filing of the petition, to examine it and to ascertain and determine from the registration records of the county whether the petition is signed by the required number of registered electors. The election a…

(1) Whenever any such petition is presented to the board of county commissioners of a county with a certificate of the election administrator attached thereto and showing that the petition has been signed by not less than 35% of the registered electors of the county whose names a…

(1) At any time prior to 5 days before the date fixed for consideration and final action on the petition, 50% of the registered electors residing within a particular part or portion of the county may file with the county clerk of the county a petition in writing, signed by them, …

Whenever any petition is filed under 7-2-2705, the election administrator shall immediately examine the petition and determine from the registration records of the county whether the petition has been signed by the required number of registered electors and shall attach to the pe…

(1) On the day fixed by the board for consideration and final action on such petition for abandonment, the board shall meet and examine and consider all petitions which may have been filed praying that particular parts or portions of said county, if abandoned, be attached to an a…

The resolution authorized by 7-2-2707 shall be in substantially the following form: Whereas, there has been filed with the election administrator of (name) county, Montana, a petition asking that the organization and corporate existence of the county be abandoned and abolished an…

(1) (a) Within 14 days after transmittal of the resolution provided for in 7-2-2707, the boards of county commissioners of the county in which the petition referred to in the resolution was filed and of each county designated in the resolution as a county to which any of the terr…

(1) At such election the question to be submitted to the qualified electors of the county in which said petition was filed shall be as follows: ☐ FOR the abandonment and abolishment of the county of (name) and attaching the territory within its boundaries to and making the same a…

(1) The board of county commissioners of each county, acting as a canvassing board, shall, within 10 days after the election, canvass the returns of the election. Within 5 days after the canvass, the election administrator of each county shall make and enter in the records of the…

(1) If at the election a majority of the votes cast in the county in which the petition for abandonment was filed are cast in favor of the abandonment and abolishment of the county and if a majority of the votes in the county designated in the petition as the county to which the …

The townships of a county abandoned and abolished under this part shall be townships of the county to which the territory within such townships is attached until such time as they may be changed by the board of county commissioners of such county. If a township of such abandoned …

Each county to which any part of the territory of an abandoned county is attached and made a part: (1) shall succeed to, must have, must possess, and shall own all real estate, all improvements on the property, all tangible property, and all county highways situated within the te…

The county designated in the petition for the abandonment of a county as the county to which the territory of the abandoned county is to be attached, subject to the provisions of this part, shall: (1) succeed to, have, possess, and own all other property, assets, liens, rights, r…

(1) All maps, plats, papers, documents, records, record books, indexes, and files of every kind and description belonging to an abandoned and abolished county or in the possession of any of the officers thereof on the date when such county ceases to exist shall be, immediately af…

Except as provided in 7-2-2726, all valid and existing contracts entered into by a county abandoned and abolished under this part which, by the terms thereof, will extend beyond the time when such county ceases to exist shall continue in full force and effect as contracts of the …

(1) If the abandoned and abolished county has entered into a printing contract in accordance with the provisions of Title 18, chapter 7, part 4, and the contract is in full force and effect on the date when the county ceases to exist, the purchase of all supplies and printing for…

(1) All school districts and other special districts of an abandoned and abolished county shall continue as and be such school districts and special districts of the county to which such territory is attached and becomes a part. The members of the boards of trustees or directors …

(1) If a county high school shall have been established in any abandoned and abolished county when such county ceases to exist, such county high school shall become the high school of the district in which it is situated or located and all property, both real and personal, owned …

(1) Whenever a county is abandoned and abolished and its territory is attached to and made a part of an adjoining county under the provisions of this part, none of the property situated within the boundaries of such abandoned and abolished county shall be subjected to taxation or…

(1) After all warrants have been drawn and issued against the funds of the adjoining county, referred to in 7-2-2729, to pay the claims and demands existing against the adjoining county on the date when the territory of the abandoned and abolished county was attached to the adjoi…

(1) All claims and demands against any abandoned and abolished county for salaries, services, wages, materials, and supplies; for all other current expenses; and for claims and demands accruing under contracts and for which said county was liable at the time it ceased to exist an…

(1) All money in each of the funds of an abandoned and abolished county shall be transferred to and paid over by the treasurer thereof to the treasurer of the county designated in the petition for abandonment as the county to which its territory is to be attached and become a par…

Taxes levied for all funds that were delinquent on the day the county ceased to exist and for which tax lien sales had not been held and all licenses and other money owing to the county at that time must be collected by the treasurer of the county designated in the petition for a…