130 results for 'court:"Minnesota Supreme Court"'.
J. McKeig reverses the Court of Appeals' finding that the Bureau of Mediation Services had appropriately weighed the statutory factors of the Public Employment Labor Relations Act, that it was authorized to consider over-fragmentation of bargaining units and that it had not departed from normal procedure in analyzing the police union's petition to determine an appropriate bargaining unit. The Bureau improperly gave controlling weight to its policy preference to certify only four basic county bargaining units, which is not found in PELRA. Reversed.
Court: Minnesota Supreme Court, Judge: McKeig, Filed On: March 6, 2024, Case #: A22-0911, Categories: Administrative Law, Labor / Unions
J. Anderson reverses the Court of Appeals' order reversing the district court's findings that the defendant's arrest warrant had been quashed prior to her arrest and that a search of her person during the arrest was unconstitutional. The good-faith exception to the Minnesota Constitution's exclusionary rule does not apply to evidence obtained during a search on a quashed warrant in this case, since the arrest and search were closely connected to government error and the exclusion of evidence would serve the remedial purpose of the rule, particularly by deterring government misconduct generally.
Court: Minnesota Supreme Court, Judge: Anderson, Filed On: March 6, 2024, Case #: A22-1314, Categories: Drug Offender, Evidence
Per curiam, the Minnesota Supreme Court disbars attorney Fong Lee for misappropriating client funds. Absent any mitigating factors and with several aggravating factors, disbarment is the appropriate discipline for an attorney who misappropriated funds from three clients.
Court: Minnesota Supreme Court, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: February 28, 2024, Case #: A23-0008, Categories: Attorney Discipline
J. Chutich affirms the defendant's three first-degree premeditated murder convictions for the killings of his girlfriend, their unborn child, and the girlfriend's infant son. The defendant forfeited appellate relief for an allegedly improper closing argument by failing to object to the relevant portions of that argument at trial, and he has failed to show that speculative statements in closing arguments are a repeated problem warranting prophylactic reversal. Affirmed.
Court: Minnesota Supreme Court, Judge: Chutich, Filed On: February 28, 2024, Case #: A22-1277, Categories: Murder, Prosecutorial Misconduct
J. Chutich affirms the Court of Appeals and the district court in the juvenile delinquency defendant's appeal arguing that the state cannot file more than one notice of intention to prosecute in juvenile delinquency proceedings. The state can file multiple such notices, and thereby extend a suspension of gross misdemeanor proceedings until a child found to be incompetent is restored to competency or ages out of juvenile jurisdiction, or until the state fails to file a timely notice. The Juvenile Rules Advisory Committee is also directed to propose amendments to the relevant rule that will "promote clear, consistent practice and procedures in these juvenile cases." Affirmed.
Court: Minnesota Supreme Court, Judge: Chutich, Filed On: February 28, 2024, Case #: A22-0654, Categories: Criminal Procedure, Juvenile Law, Sex Offender
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J. Anderson affirms the defendant's convictions first-degree premeditated murder and attempted first-degree premeditated murder. The district court did not abuse its discretion in denying motions to strike a juror for cause and for a change of venue, since the juror did not express actual bias and the defendant failed to renew the venue motion following voir dire. The circumstances of the murder, namely the bombing of a clinic and shootings of staff members after repeated statements encouraging the murder of nurses, also support the inference that the defendant intended to kill his victims. Affirmed.
Court: Minnesota Supreme Court, Judge: Anderson, Filed On: February 21, 2024, Case #: A22-1340, Categories: Intent, Jury, Murder
J. Thissen affirms the district court's denial of the prisoner's motion to correct his sentence for first-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder convictions. The issue raised in the motion, namely the prisoner's assertion that custody credit should be applied to the first of his two consecutive sentences, has already been decided in this case. The motion is therefore barred by the law of the case doctrine. Affirmed.
Court: Minnesota Supreme Court, Judge: Thissen, Filed On: February 21, 2024, Case #: A23-1100, Categories: Murder, Sentencing
J. Hudson affirms the district court's determination that the defendant's equity in his home is a "resource" for the purposes of calculating his ability to pay criminal restitution. Home equity may be considered a "useful and valuable possession" for those purposes even when the home is co-owned with a non-defendant spouse. Affirmed.
Court: Minnesota Supreme Court, Judge: Hudson, Filed On: February 14, 2024, Case #: A22-0630, Categories: Fraud, Restitution
J. Chutich affirms the Court of Appeals' conclusion that the district court did not abuse its discretion by removing a trustee of the charitable trust, which also owns a major regional bank. District courts may remove trustees for a "serious breach of trust," and such a breach may be a series of smaller breaches which, taken together, justify removal even if none of them would justify it alone. The trustee's pattern of self-dealing with trust resources, including support for an attempted hostile takeover of the bank by outside investors and abusive treatment of a trust grantee, qualifies under this definition.
Court: Minnesota Supreme Court, Judge: Chutich, Filed On: February 7, 2024, Case #: A22-0906, Categories: Trusts, Fiduciary Duty
J. Anderson affirms the defendant's sentence for third- and fourth-degree sexual conduct, finding that the U.S. Supreme Court's decisions in Apprendi v. New Jersey and Blakely v. Washington do not alter the paradigm set in Minnesota courts in State v. Ronquist, which limited a requirement of prosecution by indictment for offenses punishable by life imprisonment to offenses so punishable before the application of sentencing enhancements based on prior convictions. That case's reasoning also exempts cases where lifetime conditional release is a possibility. Affirmed.
Court: Minnesota Supreme Court, Judge: Anderson, Filed On: February 7, 2024, Case #: A22-0318, Categories: Criminal Procedure, Sentencing, Sex Offender
Per curiam, the Minnesota Supreme Court finds that the voters have standing to assert that it would be error to place former President Donald Trump's name on 2024 presidential ballots, but that only their claim regarding the 2024 Republican Party primary ballot is ripe. It is not error to place Trump's name on the ballot, since the Minnesota Legislature has established that primaries are internal party elections, and therefore do not implicate the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, under which the voters have claimed Trump is ineligible because of his alleged participation in an insurrection against the United States.
Court: Minnesota Supreme Court, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: February 7, 2024, Case #: A23-1354, Categories: Constitution, Elections
J. Chutich affirms the district court's denial of the postconviction relief-seeker's petition. The petition's allegations are time-barred by approximately sixteen years, and the petitioner has not raised any exceptions to this time-bar. His allegations, furthermore, are legally insufficient to justify relief. Affirmed.
Court: Minnesota Supreme Court, Judge: Chutich, Filed On: February 7, 2024, Case #: A23-0915, Categories: Criminal Procedure, Murder
J. Hudson reverses the Court of Appeals' reversal of the district court's certification of a dismissal order as a partial final judgment in a breach-of-contract case related to a wastewater treatment plant improvement project. The contractor requested, and the city stipulated to, certification, and the district court documented its reasons for granting certification rather than delaying an appeal until resolution of underlying claims. The risk of mootness is outweighed by other factors supporting certification, including the separability of the claims, and the district court therefore did not abuse its discretion in certifying the order. Reversed.
Court: Minnesota Supreme Court, Judge: Hudson, Filed On: January 31, 2024, Case #: A22-1771, Categories: Civil Procedure, Contract
J. Moore reverses the defendant's convictions for first-degree premeditated murder, attempted first-degree premeditated murder, first-degree felony murder while committing a kidnapping and kidnapping to commit great bodily harm or terrorize, but remands her case for further proceedings on the kidnapping and felony murder charges. The state has provided evidence sufficient to support a reasonable inference that the defendant knew that a fake house showing she set up with the murder victim, a realtor, on behalf of her romantic partner and his friends was a setup for a kidnapping and murder plot, but the circumstances proved also support a reasonable inference that she believed the end goal of her partner's plan was a less serious crime than premeditated murder. The circumstantial evidence used to support her convictions, therefore, was insufficient to sustain her convictions for first-degree premeditated murder and attempted first-degree premeditated murder under an aiding-and-abetting theory of liability. Additionally, the district court issued impermissible hybrid jury instructions, combining accomplice liability and the underlying elements into a single instruction which misstated the law by allowing the jury to convict the defendant of kidnapping without reaching the issue of liability under an aiding-and-abetting theory. These erroneous instructions were also not harmless. The defendant's other arguments regarding jury instructions and sufficiency of evidence fail. Reversed.
Court: Minnesota Supreme Court, Judge: Moore, Filed On: January 31, 2024, Case #: A22-0163, Categories: Murder, Kidnapping, Jury Instructions
J. McKeig affirms the Court of Appeals' reversal of the district court's dismissal of second-degree riot charges for lack of probable cause. Cars may be a dangerous weapon if their use is likely to cause death or great bodily harm, whether or not their drivers intend to cause that harm. Affirmed.
Court: Minnesota Supreme Court, Judge: McKeig, Filed On: January 24, 2024, Case #: A22-1551, Categories: Criminal Procedure, Weapons
J. Hudson adopts several proposed amendments to the rules of the Minnesota Client Security Board. The court declines to adopt a rule barring attorneys from receiving payment for assisting with prosecuting claims to the board without board approval, finding it unnecessary. A rule permitting the board to deny any claim is modified to specify the factors it must consider, and a third proposed rule seeking to formally define "loss" is not adopted as it is duplicative of another rule.
Court: Minnesota Supreme Court, Judge: Hudson, Filed On: January 24, 2024, Case #: ADM10-8005, Categories: Administrative Law, Civil Procedure
J. Moore affirms the Court of Appeals' finding that the district court abused its discretion by granting the postconviction relief petitioner's petition. The petitioner's claim alleging false trial testimony is procedurally barred under a 1976 ruling which holds that all claims known, but not raised, at the time of a direct appeal cannot be considered in subsequent postconviction relief petitions. The district court's failure to make a determination as to whether the claim was barred under that rule, therefore, was an abuse of discretion. Affirmed.
Court: Minnesota Supreme Court, Judge: Moore, Filed On: January 17, 2024, Case #: A21-1560, Categories: Criminal Procedure, Firearms
J. McKeig affirms the district court's order requiring that the defendant, convicted for three offenses related to child pornography he produced of an ex-girlfriend's daughter, pay restitution to the child's mother. The family members of a minor victim of a crime may receive restitution, and the child's mother adequately showed that she suffered monetary and psychological damage as a result of the defendant's crimes. Affirmed.
Court: Minnesota Supreme Court, Judge: McKeig, Filed On: January 10, 2024, Case #: A22-0793, Categories: Sex Offender, Restitution, Child Pornography
Per curiam, the Minnesota Supreme Court suspends attorney Joseph Kaminsky for a minimum of nine months for failing to properly supervise staff, filing a false affidavit, neglecting a client, failing to represent another client competently and diligently and failing to deposit unearned advance fees in a trust account.
Court: Minnesota Supreme Court, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: January 10, 2024, Case #: A21-1649, Categories: Attorney Discipline
J. Thissen reverses the human service commissioner's order requiring the Medicaid vendor to return overpayments. While the failure to maintain health service records does qualify as "abuse" in connection with the provision of medical care to recipients of public assistance under the relevant statute, the human services department failed to explain why its payments to the vendor were improperly paid as a result of that abuse. Reversed.
Court: Minnesota Supreme Court, Judge: Thissen, Filed On: January 10, 2024, Case #: A21-1477, Categories: Administrative Law, Health Care, Medicaid
Per curiam, the Minnesota Supreme Court suspends attorney Samuel McCloud for a minimum of 90 days with two years of supervised probation following reinstatement for missing a hearing, practicing law while suspended, and impermissibly disclosing a client's confidential information.
Court: Minnesota Supreme Court, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: December 20, 2023, Case #: A22-0800, Categories: Attorney Discipline
J. Chutich revokes attorney Kenneth Keate's conditional reinstatement to the practice of law and denies his request for additional time to file proof of his successful completion of the professional-responsibility portion of the state bar examination. The attorney has not established good cause for his failure to pass the exam by an established deadline, and his request was procedurally deficient.
Court: Minnesota Supreme Court, Judge: Chutich, Filed On: December 12, 2023, Case #: A22-0773, Categories: Attorney Discipline
J. Thissen partially affirms the district court's dismissal of a case brought by patients seeking disclosure of their medical records. Individuals may bring a private right of action under the private attorney general statute, but not under the Minnesota Health Care Bill of Rights. Affirmed in part.
Court: Minnesota Supreme Court, Judge: Thissen, Filed On: December 6, 2023, Case #: A21-1518, Categories: Health Care, Privacy