Montana Attorney General Opinion 15-459

Opinion No. 459. State Officers-State Board of Land Commissioner-Petitions. HELD: The petition to the Recon- struction Finance Corporation, to ob- tain a loan, containing no reference to the execution of a contract between the petitioning Irrigation District and the United States or any instrumentality of the United States, should not, in its present form, be signed by the State Boa rd of Land Commissioners, such ac- tion not being expressly authorized by Section 1, Chapter 58, Laws of 1929. February 14, 1934. It appears from your letter to us of the 18th ult., that the Cove Irrigation District in Yellowstone County is a regularly established and organized ir- rigation district in which the State of Montana owns some school lands; that the par value of its outstanding bonds is the sum of $258,500.00, and that it has. defaulted in the payment of in- stallments of the prinCipal to the ex- tent of $44,000.00 and in the payment of interest thereon to the extent of $31,020.00. It appears further from your letter that the bondholders, by way of comproinise, are willing to ac- cept fifty cents on each dollar of the principal sum which the irrigation dis- trict so owes. To meet the situation thus presented the Board of Commis- sioners of the irrigation district has applied to the Reconstruction Finance Corporation for a loan of '$130,750.00 "rith the view of expediting the neces- sary proceedings and making the loan a reasonable certainty, a special com- mittee appointed for the purpose has requested all owners of lands within the irrigation district, including the State of Montana, to Sign a petition ad- dressed to said Board of Commission- ers to the following effect: "That the municipal coupon bonds of Cove Irrigation District in the ag- gregate amount of $130,750.00, be au- thorized and issued by said district for the purpose of redeeming or pay- ing all or a portion of the existing indebtedness of said district evidenced by the outstanding bonds of said dis- trict bearing date the 25th day of October, 1922, in the aggregate princi- pal amount of $258,500.00, and for the purpose of liquidating the expenses necessary for the completion of the re- financing program." You apparently doubt the power of the State Board of Land Commission- ers to sign such petition in behalf of the State of Montana and have asked us for an opinion on the question of law involved. Section 1 of Chapter 58, Laws of 1929, provides that the State Board of Land Commissioners "for and on be- half of the State of Montana is hereby empowered to Sign a petition for the inclusion of any lands belonging to the State in an irrigation district organ- ized or to be organized for the purpose of cooperating with the United States under the l!'ederal Reclamation Laws or any Act of Congress relating to Rec- lamation projects, and to sign any pe- tition for the execution of a contract be- tween such district and the United States * * •. " In requesting the State Board of Land Commissioners to sign the peti- tion in behalf of the State of Montana the committee doubtless entertained the view that the provision just quot- ed gave it authority so to do. But, while the purpose of the proceeding may be, as stated above, to obtain a loan from the Reconstruction l!lnance Corporation, an instrumentality of the United States, to retire the outstanding bonds of the Cove Irrigation Disrtict, still a reading of the petition discloses that it contains no reference whatever to the execution of a contract between the district and the United States or 318 OPI~roNS OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL any instrumentality of the United Stntes. It is a rule of uni"l"ersal application that state officers, boards and commis- sions may exercise only such powers as are expressly given to them by consti- tutional provision or statutory enact- ment and such powers as are necessar- ily implied from those so given. They have no powers beyond those grnnted hy express provision of law or neces- sary. implication. (State ex reI, Jones v. Erickson, 75 Mont. 429; 59 C. J. 111.) We, therefore, advise that the peti- tion, in its present form at least, be not signed by the State Board of Land Commissioners.