83 results for 'court:"Minnesota Court Of Appeals"'.
J. Ross affirms the defendant's criminal sexual conduct conviction. The state presented sufficient evidence to support the venue of the defendant's trial, namely the county from which his victim had recently run away and later returned rather than the intended destination of her flight. The defendant's argument that the child intended to reside outside of her home county is irrelevant and "rests largely on conjecture." A postconviction court also properly rejected the defendant's arguments that the state violated his due-process rights by failing to disclose juvenile-protection orders and that the court did so by refusing to appoint advisory counsel. Affirmed.
Court: Minnesota Court Of Appeals, Judge: Ross, Filed On: January 29, 2024, Case #: A22-0054, Categories: Sex Offender, Jurisdiction
J. Reyes affirms the district court's denial of the grandmother's motion for an evidentiary hearing after she filed a motion for adoptive placement. The grandmother's failure to file a valid adoption home study or an affidavit, statutory prerequisites for such a hearing, meant that the court's refusal to hold the hearing was not erroneous. Affirmed.
Court: Minnesota Court Of Appeals, Judge: Reyes, Filed On: January 29, 2024, Case #: A23-0877, Categories: Family Law, Juvenile Law
J. Reyes affirms the district court's adjudication of the minor as delinquent of fifth-degree criminal sexual conduct following his breach of a continuance for dismissal agreement. District courts retain subject-matter jurisdiction over adult defendants' termination hearings for continuances for dismissal until a defendant's 21st birthday under an exception to Minnesota's juvenile-jurisdiction statute permitting them to conduct a trial. Affirmed.
Court: Minnesota Court Of Appeals, Judge: Reyes, Filed On: January 22, 2024, Case #: A23-0752, Categories: Juvenile Law, Sex Offender
J. Frisch affirms the district court's grant of summary judgment to the city in the landlords' suit seeking to overturn an ordinance barring landlords from discriminating against prospective tenants on the basis of their receipt of public assistance. The ordinance does not effect a physical or regulatory taking under the Minnesota Constitution, nor is it preempted by the Minnesota Human Rights Act.
Court: Minnesota Court Of Appeals, Judge: Frisch, Filed On: January 16, 2024, Case #: A23-0191, Categories: Constitution, Preemption, Housing
J. Connolly partially reverses the district court's dismissal of the father's wrongful death action against the mental health treatment provider stemming from the overdose death of his son in the provider's care. While the district court correctly determined that a statute requiring that plaintiffs include expert testimony in a prima facie case for medical malpractice claims, it abused its discretion in dismissing the father's wrongful-death claim for failure to serve an expert-review affidavit within the three-year statute of limitations for wrongful-death actions because the affidavit was filed within a 60-day safe harbor period. Affirmed in part.
Court: Minnesota Court Of Appeals, Judge: Connolly, Filed On: January 16, 2024, Case #: A23-0483, Categories: Civil Procedure, Wrongful Death, Medical Malpractice
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J. Segal partially affirms the district court's grant of summary judgment to the defendant property owners in their neighbor's adverse-possession action seeking title to or a prescriptive hunting easement over a portion of their property. While the adverse possession claim was properly dismissed because the neighbor did not pay property taxes over the disputed parcel and exemptions to that requirement do not apply, the prescriptive easement claim is revived because the uses of land required to establish a prescriptive easement claim are not limited to access.
Court: Minnesota Court Of Appeals, Judge: Segal, Filed On: January 8, 2024, Case #: A23-0619, Categories: Property, Real Estate
J. Ede reverses the district court's dismissal for lack of probable cause of a charge of possession of a firearm not identified by a serial number. The statute prohibiting possession of a firearm without a serial number is not unconstitutionally vague as applied to the defendant's possession of a privately-made weapon. Reversed.
Court: Minnesota Court Of Appeals, Judge: Ede, Filed On: December 18, 2023, Case #: A23-0863, Categories: Constitution, Firearms
J. Johnson reverses the town's denial of a property owner's application for private access to a public road. The town board's reasons for denial are variously not within the regulatory purposes specified in an applicable state statute or not supported by sufficient evidence. These reasons include determinations that the property owner had not shown good cause for a second entrance to its property, that the property is equally accessible from the existing entrance, that the road was created by subdivision plats which do not include the property, that the road is part of a "subordinate service district" that does not include the property, that the proposed agricultural use of the property is "incompatible with the character" of the residential street, and that it could cause "liability, drainage and maintenance problems." Reversed.
Court: Minnesota Court Of Appeals, Judge: Johnson, Filed On: December 18, 2023, Case #: A23-0372, Categories: Municipal Law, Property, Zoning
J. Reyes affirms the district court's dismissal of the data requesters' action seeking data related to election procedures from a county director of property tax and elections. The director is a designee, not the responsible authority, for the relevant data under the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act, and therefore was not a proper defendant for this case. The district court also did not err in dismissing the case without joining the responsible authority as a defendant, nor in dismissing the requesters' request for a declaratory judgment as to whether the county's procedures complied with the Act. It also did not err in determining that it lacked subject-matter jurisdiction over a count seeking a prohibition of the use of modems in voting machines, since the requesters did not comply with relevant service requirements. Affirmed.
Court: Minnesota Court Of Appeals, Judge: Reyes, Filed On: December 18, 2023, Case #: A23-0302, Categories: Elections, Government, Public Record
J. Cochran affirms the district court's determination that the insured is not entitled to recover interest from its insurer under a state law governing interest awarded to insureds who prevail on certain claims in court or arbitration proceedings. An appraisal award is not sufficient to demonstrate that an insured prevailed in a claim against an insurer for the purposes of that statute. Affirmed.
Court: Minnesota Court Of Appeals, Judge: Cochran, Filed On: December 18, 2023, Case #: A23-0466, Categories: Insurance, Contract
J. Slieter affirms the district court's modification of a grandparent-visitation order which allowed a child to live with her mother in Massachusets and required the grandparents to visit her there. A state law provision requiring a custodial parent to obtain a court order or consent of another parent with parenting time to move to another state does not apply to grandparent-visitation rights when there is no parenting-time order with another parent. The district court also acted within its discretion when properly applying a different state law concerning modification of parenting-time orders. Affirmed.
Court: Minnesota Court Of Appeals, Judge: Slieter, Filed On: December 11, 2023, Case #: A23-0331, Categories: Family Law, Due Process
J. Frisch affirms the district court's denial of the purchaser's motion for a temporary injunction halting the cancellation of the sale of a mall. The district court was not obligated to presume the existence of irreparable harm should injunctive relief be denied, and the fact that the dispute concerns the purchase of real estate does not change that. It also did not abuse its discretion in concluding that the purchaser did not demonstrate irreparable harm as required. Affirmed.
Court: Minnesota Court Of Appeals, Judge: Frisch, Filed On: December 11, 2023, Case #: A23-0598, Categories: Property, Contract, Injunction
J. Johnson reverses the district court's grant of summary judgment to the landlord, finding that a liquidated-damages clause in a movie theater operator's lease is not enforceable. Actual damages caused by the operator's breach of its lease, namely unpaid rent, are able to be estimated accurately. The amount of liquidated damages provided for in the clause also does not account for the landlord's duty to mitigate damages and is not a reasonable forecast of actual damages. Reversed.
Court: Minnesota Court Of Appeals, Judge: Johnson, Filed On: December 11, 2023, Case #: A23-0194, Categories: Landlord Tenant, Damages, Contract
J. Segal affirms the defendant's criminal sexual conduct convictions and the district court's decisions to sentence him an engrained offender and to impose lifelong conditional release. The testimony of the teenager he was accused of abusing was sufficiently reliable to support a conviction, and while the district court erred in finding that he qualified for sentencing as a dangerous offender since he has only one prior violent-crime conviction, its determination that he "previously committed" a predatory crime was not erroneous. Affirmed.
Court: Minnesota Court Of Appeals, Judge: Segal, Filed On: December 4, 2023, Case #: A23-0133, Categories: Sentencing, Sex Offender
J. Johnson partially affirms the defendant's criminal sexual conduct convictions and sentence. The defendant's guilty please are not invalidated by an unfulfilled promise of concurrent, rather than consecutive, stayed prison sentences, but he retains a right to post-conviction relief and to develop a factual record regarding the terms of his plea agreement. The consecutive stayed prison terms are not authorized by state law in this case, however, and so this case is remanded for resentencing. Affirmed in part.
Court: Minnesota Court Of Appeals, Judge: Johnson, Filed On: December 4, 2023, Case #: A23-0134, Categories: Sentencing, Sex Offender
J. Larkin affirms the district court's decision terminating the mother's parental rights. The district court did not clearly err in allowing the mother to waive her right to counsel, since it adequately warned her of the difficulties proceeding pro se would present. It also did not violate her right to due process by removing her from trial for disruptive conduct and proceeding in default. She also failed to preserve evidentiary objections for review on appeal, and the district court did not abuse its discretion in finding that termination was in the child's best interests. Affirmed.
Court: Minnesota Court Of Appeals, Judge: Larkin, Filed On: November 27, 2023, Case #: A23-0935, Categories: Civil Procedure, Family Law, Due Process
J. Connolly affirms the district court's denial of the biological parents' motion seeking to revoke their consents to adoption on the basis of fraud. Such motions are governed by a 90-day deadline imposed by the rules of juvenile protection procedure rather than Minnesota's six-year statute of limitations for fraud claims. Affirmed.
Court: Minnesota Court Of Appeals, Judge: Connolly, Filed On: November 20, 2023, Case #: A23-0663, Categories: Civil Procedure, Family Law
J. Bjorkman affirms the district court's partial denial of the county's claim to recover medical assistance funds from the estate of a deceased long-term care patient. A Minnesota statute limits such estate-recovery claims to amounts paid for the long-term care services actually provided to the decedent. Affirmed.
Court: Minnesota Court Of Appeals, Judge: Bjorkman, Filed On: November 20, 2023, Case #: A23-0210, Categories: Medicaid, Wills / Probate
J. Frisch grants a writ of prohibition requested by the attorneys of a woman who accused former Minnesota Vikings player Dalvin Cook of domestic assault, which would preclude enforcement of a discovery order compelling the disclosure of information which they assert is protected by attorney-client privilege and the work-product doctrine. The district court abused its discretion in finding that the attorneys' decision to share their final civil complaint with the press before filing it in court resulted waiver of those privileges.
Court: Minnesota Court Of Appeals, Judge: Frisch, Filed On: November 6, 2023, Case #: A23-0309, Categories: Discovery, Privilege, Assault
J. Reyes affirms the defendant's conviction for possession of ammunition as an ineligible person, finding that the district court did not err in barring the defendant's attorney from arguing that the state needed to prove that the defendant knew the ammunition he possessed was operable. While the defendant can argue that the ammunition was inoperable and therefore its possession was not unlawful, the state need not prove knowledge of operability. Affirmed.
Court: Minnesota Court Of Appeals, Judge: Reyes, Filed On: October 23, 2023, Case #: A22-1744, Categories: Firearms, Probation, Weapons
J. Johnson reverses the defendant's second-degree murder conviction, finding that an erroneous jury instruction was not harmless. The instruction, which concerned the defendant's defense-of-others defense, erred in stating that the defendant had a duty to retreat or avoid danger if reasonably possible. Such an instruction contradicts the statutory right to use reasonable force to defend another person. This case is remanded for a new trial. Reversed.
Court: Minnesota Court Of Appeals, Judge: Johnson, Filed On: October 16, 2023, Case #: A22-1424, Categories: Murder, Self Defense, Jury Instructions
J. Bratvold affirms the district court's dismissal of the grandfather's petition for visitation of his grandchildren and its denial of his motion to compel discovery and enforce subpoenas. No motion for dismissal was required for the the district court to dismiss the petition after finding that the grandfather had not established required factors for visitation, and a six-month waiting period does not apply to the petition. Denial of the discovery motion was also not an abuse of discretion in light of the petition dismissal.
Court: Minnesota Court Of Appeals, Judge: Bratvold, Filed On: October 9, 2023, Case #: A23-0151, Categories: Civil Procedure, Family Law
J. Cochran finds that the commissioner of education properly ordered a downward adjustment to the amount of state education aid received by the relator after an audit by the department found that the relator overreported the number of students attending its charter school. The commissioner has authority under the statute to audit charter school records and order adjustments in state aid based on the audit results. The commissioner's decision was supported by evidence, including manual attendance records. Affirmed.
Court: Minnesota Court Of Appeals, Judge: Cochran, Filed On: September 25, 2023, Case #: A23-0064, Categories: Education
J. Gaitas partially reverses the Minnesota Department of Education's decision to terminate the Children and Adult Care Food Program provider's agreement and deny its claims for reimbursement. While the provider has not demonstrated that the reimbursement denials were erroneous, the Department may not terminate a provider's participation in the program without making a finding of "serious deficiencies" in the provider's ability to administer the food program, giving it notice of those deficiencies and allowing corrective action. Reversed in part.
Court: Minnesota Court Of Appeals, Judge: Gaitas, Filed On: September 18, 2023, Case #: A22-0965, Categories: Administrative Law, Covid-19
J. Wheelock affirms the district court's denial of the defendant's motion to exclude his therapist's report and testimony, and finds that it did not abuse its discretion in excluding the defendant's evidence regarding the phase of the moon at the time he had sex with a babysitter, who he claims was 18 at the time, and a related text message exchange. While the babysitter was 18 at the time his therapist reported suspected maltreatment, Minnesota's mandated-reporter statute requires that therapists make maltreatment reports if they have reason to believe that a child has been maltreated while still a minor, regardless of whether the child has since reached the age of minority. Any error in the exclusion of the defendant's evidence was harmless. Affirmed.
Court: Minnesota Court Of Appeals, Judge: Wheelock, Filed On: September 18, 2023, Case #: A22-1349, Categories: Evidence, Sex Offender, Child Victims
J. Bratvold affirms the district court's denial of the New York investment firm's motion to dismiss the Attorney General's action against it for lack of personal jurisdiction. The Attorney General presented prima facie evidence that the firm had contacts with Minnesota connected to its interest in a landlord with over 600 rental properties sufficient to warrant personal jurisdiction, including allegations and evidence that it became involved in the day-to-day management of those properties by communicating with tenants, directing repairs and discussing regulatory issues with city officials. Affirmed.
Court: Minnesota Court Of Appeals, Judge: Bratvold, Filed On: September 5, 2023, Case #: A23-0244, Categories: Jurisdiction
J. Frisch partially affirms the district court's award of restitution in a murder case. While the district court did not err in calculating restitution without considering GoFundMe campaign proceeds available to the crime victim or in finding that the state had reached its burden to show that a victim-reimbursement program had sustained an economic loss equal to the amount it provided to the victim, the court did err in failing to include a payment schedule or structure in its restitution order. Affirmed in part.
Court: Minnesota Court Of Appeals, Judge: Frisch, Filed On: September 5, 2023, Case #: A23-0213, Categories: Murder, Restitution
J. Bratvold affirms the district court's award of restitution to the murder victim's family and its denial of the murder defendant's motion appealing the restitution award. The defendant's motion was untimely and did not comply with procedural requirements, but the requirements it did not meet were claim-processing rules rather than jurisdictional requirements, and the district court therefore had jurisdiction over the restitution challenge. The district court also did not err in refusing to consider life-insurance proceeds received by the victim's mother in determining her economic loss, since a district court should not consider such proceeds in determining a victim's "amount of economic loss." The district court also did not abuse its discretion in awarding restitution for expenses that postdated the victim's funeral. Affirmed.
Court: Minnesota Court Of Appeals, Judge: Bratvold, Filed On: August 28, 2023, Case #: A23-0126, Categories: Criminal Procedure, Murder, Restitution
J. Ross reverses the driver's conviction for operating a motor vehicle while using a cellular device, finding that the driver was neither "reading an electronic message" or "engaging in a cellular phone call" when he picked up his phone to view the caller-identification information of an incoming spam call. The driver's argument that a 2021 amendment to the driver's-license-suspension statute requires vacation of his driving-while suspended conviction fails, however, since the amendment did not decriminalize driving with a suspended license. Reversed in part.
Court: Minnesota Court Of Appeals, Judge: Ross, Filed On: August 28, 2023, Case #: A22-1444, Categories: Evidence, Vehicle