Opinions

State v. Petersen 2023 ND 155
Docket No.: 20230049
Filing Date: 8/17/2023
Case Type: Appeal - Criminal - DUI/DUS/APC
Author: Tufte, Jerod E.

Highlight: Law enforcement exceeds its community caretaking function when it opens the door of a sleeping occupant’s parked semi-truck and steps onto the running boards in an attempt to gather information without first attempting to get a response from outside of the vehicle.

Under prong two of the inevitable discovery doctrine, the State must prove that the evidence would have been found without the unlawful activity and must show how the discovery of the evidence would have occurred.

Estate of Froemke 2023 ND 154
Docket No.: 20220321
Filing Date: 8/17/2023
Case Type: Appeal - Civil - Probate, Wills, Trusts
Author: Tufte, Jerod E.

Highlight: A witness must demonstrate some basis for forming an intelligent judgment as to the value of land before offering lay opinion testimony about the value of the land.

A property owner may present opinion testimony about the value of his property even when the opinion relies upon information from another.

Out-of-court statements are non-hearsay if they are offered for their independent legal significance where the utterance of the words is, in itself, an operative fact which gives rise to legal consequences.

Estate of Froemke 2023 ND 154
Docket No.: 20220321
Filing Date: 8/17/2023
Case Type: Appeal - Civil - Probate, Wills, Trusts
Author: Tufte, Jerod E.

Davis, et al. v. Mercy Medical Center, et al. 2023 ND 153
Docket No.: 20220325
Filing Date: 8/17/2023
Case Type: Appeal - Civil - Malpractice
Author: Crothers, Daniel John

Highlight: In a negligence action, a proximate cause is a cause which, as a natural and continuous sequence, unbroken by any controlling intervening cause, produces the injury, and without which it would not have occurred.

A court will not disturb a jury’s damages verdict unless the verdict is so excessive or inadequate as to be without evidentiary support.

The jury must determine the damages to which a party is entitled within reasonable limits, based upon the evidence. If those limits have been exceeded, it is the court’s duty to make a proper reduction or grant a new trial.

Davis, et al. v. Mercy Medical Center, et al. 2023 ND 153
Docket No.: 20220325
Filing Date: 8/17/2023
Case Type: Appeal - Civil - Malpractice
Author: Crothers, Daniel John

State v. Kollie 2023 ND 152
Docket No.: 20220343
Filing Date: 8/17/2023
Case Type: Appeal - Criminal - Homicide
Author: Tufte, Jerod E.

Highlight: A sidebar addressing routine evidentiary or administrative matters during trial, even without an adequate record, is not a closure implicating the public trial right.

The plain language of the statute criminalizing murder provides alternative means of committing the offense. A jury is not required to unanimously agree upon which of the alternative means of committing murder it believes the State proved beyond a reasonable doubt.

For purposes of double jeopardy, criminal offenses are different if each offense contains an element not contained in the other offense.

Irrelevant evidence is not admissible.

Rights of a deceased victim may be exercised by family members and others as provided in N.D. Const. art. I, § 25(4). Section 25 does not provide for the court’s enforcement of a crime victim’s rights on behalf of a deceased victim absent the assertion by an individual listed under § 25(4).

An erroneous evidentiary ruling is disregarded as harmless error under N.D.R.Crim.P. 52(a) if it does not affect the defendant’s substantial rights.

State v. Kollie 2023 ND 152
Docket No.: 20220343
Filing Date: 8/17/2023
Case Type: Appeal - Criminal - Homicide
Author: Tufte, Jerod E.

Wootan v. State 2023 ND 151
Docket No.: 20230036
Filing Date: 8/17/2023
Case Type: Appeal - Civil - Post-Conviction Relief
Author: Jensen, Jon J.

Highlight: Once the State moves for summary judgment on a post-conviction application, the defendant must provide evidentiary support for their application in response to the State’s motion.

Summary judgment on a post-conviction application is proper when the defendant fails to provide evidentiary support to show a genuine issue of material fact.

Black Elk v. State 2023 ND 150
Docket No.: 20230035
Filing Date: 8/17/2023
Case Type: Appeal - Civil - Post-Conviction Relief
Author: Jensen, Jon J.

Highlight: A part must preserve an issue in district court before it can be reviewed on appeal. A party must preserve a claim of error, as it relates to the admissibility of evidence, by objecting or moving to strike the evidence on record and stating a specific ground for exclusion.

This Court will exercise discretion rarely to consider issues not preserved in post-conviction proceedings, and will do so only if the error is plain and seriously affects the fairness, integrity, or public reputation of judicial proceedings.

A statement is not hearsay when it is offered simply to prove the statement was made. A petitioner at a post-conviction hearing is permitted to testify about the advice given to them by counsel as long as the testimony is submitted to simply show the advice was verbalized.

Advising a defendant that the defendant can deal with a material piece of evidence after a defendant has pled guilty and been sentenced by simply retracting or withdrawing the plea falls below an objectively reasonable standard of a defense attorney.

Goff v. NDDOT 2023 ND 149
Docket No.: 20230115
Filing Date: 8/2/2023
Case Type: Appeal - Administrative - Department of Transportation
Author: Crothers, Daniel John

Highlight: Substantially justified means justified to a degree that could satisfy a reasonable person.