Opinions

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.

Interest of D.M.H. (CONFIDENTIAL) 2023 ND 148
Docket No.: 20230028
Filing Date: 8/2/2023
Case Type: Appeal - Civil - Juvenile Law
Author: Crothers, Daniel John

Highlight: Absent a change in circumstances, the juvenile court does not err in adopting a prior visitation schedule as the current visitation schedule.

Hennessey v. Milnor School District 2023 ND 147
Docket No.: 20230056
Filing Date: 8/2/2023
Case Type: Appeal - Civil - Employer/Employee Dispute
Author: Bahr, Douglas Alan

Highlight: In an appeal from a motion to dismiss under N.D.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6), the complaint is construed in the light most favorable to the plaintiff and well-pleaded allegations are accepted as true.

Undue influence is improper influence exercised in such a way and to such an extent as to destroy a person’s free agency or voluntary action by substituting for the person’s will the will of another.

In nontestamentary cases, undue influence requires three factors be established: (1) A person who can be influenced; (2) The fact of improper influence exerted; and (3) Submission to the overmastering effect of such unlawful conduct.

The law does not condemn all influence, only undue influence.