133 results for 'court:"Montana Supreme Court"'.
J. Baker finds that the district court improperly revoked a permit to build and operate a copper mine next to a tributary of the Smith River. The Department of Environmental Quality satisfied both the Metal Mining Reclamation Act and the Environmental Policy act in approving the mine operator's proposed cemented tailings facility. The department also conducted a rational evaluation of the impact of nitrogen discharges into the tributary. Reversed.
Court: Montana Supreme Court, Judge: Baker, Filed On: February 26, 2024, Case #: DA 22-0406, Categories: Administrative Law, Environment, Property
J. Baker finds the trial court properly granted partial summary judgment to a doctor and denied a patient’s motion for a new trial in this medical malpractice case. The patient alleges the doctor negligently performed a thighplasty on her, instead of doing a lower body lift for her desired results. The jury found the doctor not negligent in the standard of care on sequencing. Affirmed.
Court: Montana Supreme Court, Judge: Baker, Filed On: February 20, 2024, Case #: DA 22-0600, Categories: Medical Malpractice
J. McGrath finds the district court improperly upheld the justice court’s denial of a woman’s motion to dismiss for lack of speedy trial when she was charged with six misdemeanor traffic violations. This court holds the state failed to demonstrate good cause for the delay after the woman’s trial was held without her present. Reversed.
Court: Montana Supreme Court, Judge: McGrath, Filed On: February 20, 2024, Case #: DA 21-0645, Categories: Speedy Trial, Due Process, Civil Rights
J. Baker finds that the trial court should have taken judicial notice of an injured pedestrian's low blood alcohol content after admitting into evidence that he had been drinking before he was struck by a vehicle while walking in a crosswalk. Judicial notice does not require the introduction of evidence as proof of a fact. Reversed in part.
Court: Montana Supreme Court, Judge: Baker, Filed On: February 20, 2024, Case #: DA 23-0134, Categories: Evidence, Negligence
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J. Shea finds that attorney Meghan Doud misappropriated client funds, charged unreasonable fees, and failed to maintain signed fee agreements, reconcile client trust accounts or keep clients updated. She is disbarred and ordered to pay $1.3 million in restitution.
Court: Montana Supreme Court, Judge: Shea, Filed On: February 14, 2024, Case #: PR 21-0081, Categories: Attorney Discipline
J. Gustafson finds that the trial court improperly entered a permanent order of protection barring a grandmother from unsupervised visits with her grandchild. Hearsay allegations of drug use that would support a temporary order are insufficient for a permanent order, which would require substantial, credible evidence. Reversed.
Court: Montana Supreme Court, Judge: Gustafson, Filed On: February 13, 2024, Case #: DA 23-0390, Categories: Family Law, Restraining Order
J. Rice finds the trial court was within its discretion to admit evidence of prior domestic violence in a trial that ended with defendant's conviction for felony Partner or Family Member Assault. The prior act evidence showed his specific hostility toward the victim and provided context for the victim's reluctance to talk to police. Affirmed.
Court: Montana Supreme Court, Judge: Rice, Filed On: February 13, 2024, Case #: DA 21-0586, Categories: Evidence, Domestic Violence
J. McKinnon finds the trial court improperly ruled in favor of a state trooper who claimed he was constructively discharged. The trooper failed to exhaust a collective bargaining agreement's grievance process for the constructive discharge claim prior to resigning. Reversed.
Court: Montana Supreme Court, Judge: McKinnon, Filed On: February 13, 2024, Case #: DA 22-0424, Categories: Employment, Labor / Unions
J. McGrath finds that the trial court properly held that respondent waived his rights to oppose a three-month involuntary civil commitment. He signed a stipulation while thinking logically and after a thorough discussion with counsel. But an order for the involuntary administration of medications was not supported by evidence of necessity. Reversed in part.
Court: Montana Supreme Court, Judge: McGrath, Filed On: February 13, 2024, Case #: DA 22-0014, Categories: Commitment, Due Process
J. Baker finds that counsel was not deficient for deciding not to challenge questions the state asked defendant during his robbery trial. The prosecutor's "were they lying" questions were permissible because the credibility of the witnesses was a principal issue in determining his guilt. And in the context of his line of questioning, the prosecutor was not expressing a personal opinion when he asked, "You could just tell the truth, couldn't you?" Affirmed.
Court: Montana Supreme Court, Judge: Baker, Filed On: February 6, 2024, Case #: DA 22-0429, Categories: Ineffective Assistance, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Robbery
J. McGrath finds that the district court abused its discretion in denying attorney fees under the private attorney general doctrine. A bill passed in 2021 was challenged on the constitutional grounds that last-minute amendments changed its original purpose and that the bill violated the single-subject rule. Attorney fees are due because the successful effort was a vindication of important constitutional rights, private enforcement was necessary and the challenge addressed issues of statewide importance. Reversed.
Court: Montana Supreme Court, Judge: McGrath, Filed On: January 31, 2024, Case #: DA 22-0639, Categories: Constitution, Elections, Attorney Fees
J. Gustafson finds that the trial court properly applied the statute of frauds to conclude that a settlement agreement regarding the terms of a transaction in which a home buyer would sell the home back to the seller was enforceable. Text messages between the buyer and seller detailed both the requisite consent and consideration elements of an agreement. Affirmed.
Court: Montana Supreme Court, Judge: Gustafson, Filed On: January 30, 2024, Case #: DA 22-0343, Categories: Construction, Real Estate, Settlements
J. McKinnon finds that the district improperly denied a request for waiver of court costs and fees by a wife seeking dissolution and a parenting plan. The district court erred in requiring her to provide more information than required by the Department of Justice on the fee waiver form and she is entitled to waiver as an indigent.
Court: Montana Supreme Court, Judge: McKinnon, Filed On: January 30, 2024, Case #: OP 23-0734, Categories: Civil Procedure, Family Law
J. Gustafson finds that the trial court properly dismissed a malicious prosecution, abuse of process and civil rights complaint filed by a licensed bail bondsman who was criminally charged with felony assault for pepper spraying a client who violated bond conditions. A bail bond is a civil contract and bail bondsmen lack the authority to arrest their clients without a warrant or probable cause. A bail bondsmen may arrest and surrender a client with a warrant, or when a forfeiture proceeding is pending or forfeiture is declared. Affirmed.
Court: Montana Supreme Court, Judge: Gustafson, Filed On: January 30, 2024, Case #: DA 23-0256, Categories: Malicious Prosecution
J. McKinnon finds that the trial court properly upheld the Department of Revenue's determination that a tax incentive for new oil wells ran contiguously for 18 months after the start of production, even though production at the subject wells was intermittent. Also, a new owner that took over the wells after that period was not entitled to the tax incentive. To qualify for the tax incentive, production must start back up after a five-year period of nonproduction. Affirmed.
Court: Montana Supreme Court, Judge: McKinnon, Filed On: January 23, 2024, Case #: DA 23-0280, Categories: Energy, Tax
J. Baker finds that unfair prejudice of evidence of defendant's prior sexual conduct with young girls outweighed its probative value in his trial for sexual assault on his step-granddaughter. His prior acts were admissible to show motive and intent, but the trial court's limiting instruction was insufficient to overcome the undue prejudice caused by the state's repeated reminders that he had only served 45 days in jail for sex crimes involving other family members, which implied that he had not been adequately punished. Reversed.
Court: Montana Supreme Court, Judge: Baker, Filed On: January 16, 2024, Case #: DA 21-0646, Categories: Evidence, Sex Offender
J. Baker upholds the trial court expulsion of a partner from a business partnership. The expelled partner's unilateral decisions and incarceration on tax charges, along with a breakdown in trust between partners, made the partnership no longer reasonably practicable. Affirmed.
Court: Montana Supreme Court, Judge: Baker, Filed On: January 16, 2024, Case #: DA 23-0247, Categories: Partnerships, Contract
J. McGrath finds that the trial court properly enforced water rights apportionments based on percentages, not flow rates, due to historical usage and because a reliance on flow rates would not work in years with low flow. No attorney fee award was due because there was no prevailing party. Affirmed.
Court: Montana Supreme Court, Judge: McGrath, Filed On: January 9, 2024, Case #: DA 22-0742, Categories: Water, Attorney Fees
J. McKinnon finds that the trial court gave the jury in defendant's sexual intercourse without consent trial the wrong definition of "knowingly" for the "without consent" element. It said the crime involves an act with a high probability that the other person does not consent. Instead, the crime requires that he knowingly had intercourse without the other person's consent. Reversed.
Court: Montana Supreme Court, Judge: McKinnon, Filed On: December 27, 2023, Case #: DA 21-0372, Categories: Sex Offender, Jury Instructions
J. Baker finds that the trial court properly denied a motion to retry the validity of a will over allegations of undue influence. The challenger failed to show prejudice resulted from a juror's use of an online dictionary to look up the definition of "undue." Also, an attorney fee award to the estate was proper, but an award to an individual was error because she was defending her own interests and her participation was not required for the estate's defense. Reversed in part.
Court: Montana Supreme Court, Judge: Baker, Filed On: December 27, 2023, Case #: DA 22-0456, Categories: Wills / Probate, Attorney Fees
J. McKinnon finds that the trial court properly admitted hearsay statements that defendant's stepdaughter made to a doctor about the cause of her injuries, as they were made to a medical provider for the primary purpose of medical care and were nontestimonial. However, the trial court erred in admitting hearsay statements she made to a sexual assault nurse examiner that were testimonial because they were made as part of a police investigation, but the error was harmless because the statements were identical to other admissible evidence. Affirmed.
Court: Montana Supreme Court, Judge: McKinnon, Filed On: December 27, 2023, Case #: DA 21-0587, Categories: Confrontation, Drug Offender, Sex Offender
J. Gustafson holds that the state's petition to revoke defendant's suspended sentence was untimely. Defendant should have been credited for spent in federal prison concurrent with the suspended sentence for his underlying state burglary conviction, so his sentence expired before the state filed its petition. Reversed.
Court: Montana Supreme Court, Judge: Gustafson, Filed On: December 19, 2023, Case #: DA 22-0048, Categories: Burglary, Habeas, Sentencing
J. Rice finds that the district court properly reversed an agency denial of an employee's demand for six years of backpay. The three-year lookback limit of the Wage Payment Act does not apply to an employee grievance filed through the agency's grievance process. But the district court must revisit its attorney fee award to the employee to find whether an exception to the American Rule was established. Reversed in part.
Court: Montana Supreme Court, Judge: Rice, Filed On: December 12, 2023, Case #: DA 23-0057, Categories: Employment, Attorney Fees
J. McGrath finds that the trial court properly denied the employment claims filed by the former executive director of the Flathead Basin Commission. The Department of Natural Resources and Conservation could not have interfered with her employment contract since, though it shared staffing decisions with the Commission, it was her employer. Her discrimination claim failed because the lobbying she did on behalf of the Commission that created distrust with the Department was not protected political speech. And her firing was based on her inability to properly complete expense reports. Affirmed.
Court: Montana Supreme Court, Judge: McGrath, Filed On: December 12, 2023, Case #: DA 23-0231, Categories: Employment, Interference With Contract