Recent Opinions

State v. Blaskowski 2019 ND 192
Docket No.: 20190002
Filing Date: 7/11/2019
Case Type: DUI/DUS
Author: Jensen, Jon J.

Highlight: A chemical breath test was not “fairly administered” under N.D.C.C. § 39-20-07 because evidence failed to establish compliance with the approved method for conducting the test.

State v. Norton 2019 ND 191
Docket No.: 20190003
Filing Date: 7/11/2019
Case Type: MISC. STATUTORY OFFENSE (FELONY)
Author: Jensen, Jon J.

Highlight: The district court did not err by failing to require the State to name a specific individual who was threatened to establish a prima facie case of terrorizing.

The district court did not err by failing to require the State to name a specific individual who was threatened in jury instructions regarding the crime of terrorizing.

The evidence was sufficient to support the defendant’s conviction of terrorizing, and the court did not err in denying his motion for acquittal.

McCarthy v. Getz 2019 ND 190
Docket No.: 20180418
Filing Date: 7/11/2019
Case Type: MALPRACTICE
Author: McEvers, Lisa K. Fair

Highlight: A patient’s suicide is an objectively obvious fact that the goal of psychological treatment for symptoms relating to anxiety and depression had not been reached as planned and is sufficient to put parents with knowledge that their child was receiving treatment on notice that a potential claim against the psychological treatment provider exists.

Tarver v. Tarver 2019 ND 189
Docket No.: 20190073
Filing Date: 7/11/2019
Case Type: CHILD CUST & SUPPORT (Div.\Other)
Author: VandeWalle, Gerald W.

Highlight: District court did not err in not enforcing conditional stipulation read onto the record.

District court erred in failing to apply Ruff-Fischer guidelines and analyze parties’ need for and ability to pay spousal support.

State v. Shipton 2019 ND 188
Docket No.: 20190040
Filing Date: 7/11/2019
Case Type: POST-CONVICTION RELIEF
Author: VandeWalle, Gerald W.

Highlight: This Court will treat a petition for writ of error coram nobis as one for post-conviction relief under the Uniform Post-Conviction Procedure Act.

Appellant failed to meet his burden of establishing grounds for post-conviction relief.

Caster v. State 2019 ND 187
Docket No.: 20190043
Filing Date: 7/11/2019
Case Type: POST-CONVICTION RELIEF
Author: VandeWalle, Gerald W.

Highlight: District court order summarily denying application for post-conviction relief remanded with instructions for further proceedings.

Reliance on proposed orders containing no factual findings, conclusions of law, or support from the record does not satisfy the requirements of N.D.C.C. § 29-32.1-11.

Wilkens v. Westby 2019 ND 186
Docket No.: 20180430
Filing Date: 7/11/2019
Case Type: PERSONAL INJURY
Author: McEvers, Lisa K. Fair

Highlight: Death does not make a resident absent from the state for six months or more post-accident for purposes of service under North Dakota’s nonresident motorist statute, N.D.C.C. § 39-01-11.

Klein v. Estate of Luithle 2019 ND 185
Docket No.: 20180433
Filing Date: 7/11/2019
Case Type: PERSONAL INJURY
Author: Tufte, Jerod E.

Highlight: Although a district court judge has broad discretion when admitting or excluding expert witness testimony, it is an abuse of discretion to strike all of an expert witness’s testimony sua sponte when some of the testimony is admissible.

Twete v. Mullin, et al. 2019 ND 184
Docket No.: 20170450
Filing Date: 7/11/2019
Case Type: REAL PROPERTY
Author: McEvers, Lisa K. Fair

Highlight: A district court’s denial of a motion for new trial is reviewed for an abuse of discretion.

A court abuses its discretion if it acts in an arbitrary, unreasonable, or unconscionable manner; its decision is not the product of a rational mental process leading to a reasoned determination; or it misinterprets or misapplies the law.

Unopposed jury instructions become the law of the case. A party on appeal cannot complain about error that is of their own making.

A district court considering a new trial motion based on insufficiency of the evidence may not substitute its own judgment for that of the jury, or act as a thirteenth juror when the evidence is such that different persons would naturally and fairly come to different conclusions, but may set aside a jury verdict when, in considering and weighing all the evidence, the court’s judgment tells it the verdict is wrong because it is manifestly against the weight of the evidence.

Absent statutory or contractual authority, the American Rule assumes parties to a lawsuit bear their own attorney fees.

State v. Hendrickson 2019 ND 183
Docket No.: 20190075
Filing Date: 7/11/2019
Case Type: DUI/DUS
Author: McEvers, Lisa K. Fair

Highlight: Information obtained from a 911 caller may provide a sufficient factual basis to raise a reasonable and articulable suspicion of potential criminal activity to justify an investigatory stop.