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Supreme Court opinions: Oct. 3 Friday, October 4, 2019

The Supreme Court has issued 12 new opinions. Summaries of the non-per curiam opinions are below.

To see an opinion, click on the "View Opinion" button. Opinions will display in a printable format. Hyperlinks to all North Dakota opinions and rules cited in the opinion are included in the text: hover over the citation and click to follow the hyperlink.

See other Supreme Court opinions at: /supreme-court/opinions

State v. Tyler 2019 ND 246
Docket No.: 20190067
Filing Date: 10/3/2019
Case Type: ASSAULT
Author: Jensen, Jon J.

Highlight: When a party moves for a mistrial because of an unavailable witness who already testified and neither party is at fault, the movant must make an offer of proof to provide a record of what additional testimony the witness would provide and why the additional testimony is material.

Trulson, et al. v. Meiers, et al. 2019 ND 243
Docket No.: 20190035
Filing Date: 10/3/2019
Case Type: OIL, GAS AND MINERALS
Author: McEvers, Lisa K. Fair

Highlight: Whether there was delivery of a deed is a question of fact.

A grantee’s possession of a deed raises a presumption that the grantor intended delivery of the deed. The evidence to overcome the presumption of delivery must be clear and convincing.

Brock v. Price, et al. 2019 ND 240
Docket No.: 20190092
Filing Date: 10/3/2019
Case Type: PERSONAL INJURY
Author: Tufte, Jerod E.

Highlight: A district court may revise any non-final order before entry of a final judgment and has discretion to extend deadlines in its scheduling order before trial.

Once a claimant is allowed to participate in the workers’ compensation fund, he or she may no longer elect to bring a lawsuit against the employer.

The word “must” in a statute normally indicates a mandatory duty.

State v. Smith 2019 ND 239
Docket No.: 20180416
Filing Date: 10/3/2019
Case Type: SEXUAL OFFENSE
Author: Tufte, Jerod E.

Highlight: A defendant’s failure to object at trial to character evidence or evidence of alleged prior bad acts under N.D.R.Ev. 404 forfeits the claim of error.

The district court does not err by failing to give the jury an instruction limiting the use of character evidence or evidence of prior bad acts if neither party requests an instruction and the defendant does not object to the evidence at trial.

State v. Vogt 2019 ND 236
Docket No.: 20190124
Filing Date: 10/3/2019
Case Type: SEXUAL OFFENSE
Author: VandeWalle, Gerald W.

Highlight: A defendant seeking post-conviction relief cannot circumvent the Uniform Postconviction Procedure Act by designating his application for post-conviction relief as a motion under a rule of criminal procedure or by filing his motion in his criminal file, rather than filing an application for post-conviction relief.
Applicant for post-conviction relief is entitled to notice that his application may be summarily dismissed.