130 results for 'court:"Minnesota Supreme Court"'.
J. Moore affirms the court of appeals' findings that the Emergency Management Act does not unconstitutionally delegate legislative authority to the Governor and that the Governor did not exceed his authority in declaring a peacetime emergency during the Covid-19 pandemic. The Act is not an
unconstitutional delegation of legislative authority. Affirmed.
Court: Minnesota Supreme Court, Judge: Moore, Filed On: May 10, 2024, Case #: A21-0626, Categories: Constitution, Government
Per curiam, with Justices Chutich and Procaccini taking no part, the Minnesota Supreme Court grants the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party chair's petition seeking decertification of the Legal Marijuana Now Party as a major Minnesota political party. The statute establishing that major parties meet requirements including the establishment of state central and executive committees and local conventions and committees does not violate the party's First Amendment associational rights, and Legal Marijuana Now has not satisfied all of the statutory requirements.
Court: Minnesota Supreme Court, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: May 10, 2024, Case #: A24-0216, Categories: Constitution, Elections, First Amendment
J. Thissen reverses the district court's grant of summary judgment to the care home in the patient's mother's wrongful-death action alleging that it negligently failed to contact emergency services or treat the patient when she inhaled food. The mother has enough evidence in the record to raise a question of material fact as to whether the care home caused her daughter's death. Reversed.
Court: Minnesota Supreme Court, Judge: Thissen, Filed On: May 10, 2024, Case #: A22-1376, Categories: Tort, Negligence, Medical Malpractice
J. Moore affirms the defendant's second-degree murder conviction, finding that while the district court abused its discretion in admitting evidence that a witness received threatening phone calls from an unknown caller, the defendant has not demonstrated that there was a reasonable possibility that this evidence significantly impacted the verdict. Affirmed.
Court: Minnesota Supreme Court, Judge: Moore, Filed On: May 8, 2024, Case #: A22-0316, Categories: Evidence, Murder, Witnesses
J. Thissen reverses the Court of Appeals' reversal of the defendant's second-degree murder conviction, which was premised on a finding that potential exposure to Covid-19 did not make a witness unavailable for Confrontation Clause purposes and that allowing that witness's prior testimony to be read aloud for the jury without cross-examination was erroneous. While the Court of Appeals was correct as to that issue, the error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. Reversed.
Court: Minnesota Supreme Court, Judge: Thissen, Filed On: May 8, 2024, Case #: A21-1101, Categories: Confrontation, Murder, Witnesses
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C.J. Hudson partially affirms the defendant's convictions stemming from a 1993 cold-case murder. The district court did not err in finding that the defendant had no reasonable expectation of privacy in DNA found on a discarded napkin at a hockey game and that analysis of the DNA was therefore not a search. Any error in precluding the defendant from presenting evidence of an alternative perpetrator at trial was harmless, and the district court did not abuse its discretion in excluding expert testimony as late discovery. Prosecutors' statements in closing arguments did not constitute error, circumstantial evidence was sufficient to support the jury's verdict that the defendant was guilty of first-degree murder, and the defendant did not receive ineffective assistance of counsel. It was, however, error to convict the defendant of both first-degree felony murder and second-degree intentional murder, a lesser-included offense. Affirmed in part.
Court: Minnesota Supreme Court, Judge: Hudson, Filed On: May 8, 2024, Case #: A22-1679, Categories: Dna, Evidence, Murder
J. Anderson affirms the Court of Appeals' decision dismissing the shareholders' buyout claim, finding that while the shareholders' allegations supporting the shareholder status of the bank were sufficient to survive a motion for judgment on the pleadings, the Supreme Court is evenly divided (with J. Thissen taking no part) on the issue of whether beneficial owners of a closely held corporation may initiate an action for a buy-out of their interests. Affirmed in part.
Court: Minnesota Supreme Court, Judge: Anderson, Filed On: May 8, 2024, Case #: A22-0777, Categories: Corporations, Fiduciary Duty
J. Anderson affirms the defendant's conviction on two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct. The district court did not abuse its discretion in scheduling the defendant's trial past the six-month deadline available under the Uniform Mandatory Disposition of Detainers Act, since it properly found good cause to continue the trial, namely repeated changes of defense counsel, administrative delays in providing notices to that counsel, and scheduling issues involving that counsel. Affirmed.
Court: Minnesota Supreme Court, Judge: Anderson, Filed On: May 8, 2024, Case #: A22-0570, Categories: Sex Offender, Speedy Trial
J. Thissen affirms the defendant's conviction of theft by swindle, finding that search warrants authorizing the seizure and search of her electronic devices were sufficiently particular to survive Fourth Amendment and Minnesota constitutional scrutiny and that the guilty verdict was unattributable to evidence obtained from the search of the defendant's law office. Despite this, law enforcement's search of the law office raises concerns about risks to attorney-client privilege, so the court establishes prospective procedural safeguards for such searches. Affirmed.
Court: Minnesota Supreme Court, Judge: Thissen, Filed On: May 8, 2024, Case #: A22-0468, Categories: Search, Theft
J. Anderson finds that while the district court did not err in concluding that the defendant had abandoned a privacy interest in genetic information extracted from semen he left at a crime scene and garbage he left in a bin, it abused its discretion in excluding evidence he proffered on the grounds that it did not have an "inherent tendency" to connect an alternative perpetrator to the murder at issue. The evidence proffered was admissible, the district court held the proffer to an unobtainable legal standard, and the error was not harmless. Reversed.
Court: Minnesota Supreme Court, Judge: Anderson, Filed On: May 8, 2024, Case #: A22-1823, Categories: Evidence, Murder
J. Procaccini promulgates amendments to the Minnesota General Rules of Practice for the District Courts and Minnesota Rules of Civil Appellate Procedure as two-year pilot project. The amendments allow for continuances for the purpose of allowing personal leave for attorneys under certain covered circumstances, including the birth or adoption of a child, health conditions, the death of a family member or the need to care for a spouse, household member or family member.
Court: Minnesota Supreme Court, Judge: Procaccini, Filed On: May 1, 2024, Case #: ADM09-8009, Categories: Administrative Law, Civil Procedure
J. Anderson reverses the defendant's convictions for first-degree arson, second-degree burglary and theft of a motor vehicle. The district court abused its discretion in denying the defendant the right to assert a mental-illness defense, since several reports on his mental state indicate that the disturbances leading to his conduct pre-existed his drug use. Reversed.
Court: Minnesota Supreme Court, Judge: Anderson, Filed On: May 1, 2024, Case #: A22-1206, Categories: Burglary, Competence, Arson
J. Anderson affirms the district court's dismissal of a postconviction relief petition for murder and attempted murder convictions, finding that the petitioner has not satisfied the newly-discovered-evidence or interests-of-judgment exceptions to the time limit for such petitions. Newly-discovered DNA evidence does not meet that threshold because the petitioner has not met the clear-and-convincing standard to show that it is exculpatory, and he has not otherwise shown that the interests of justice require a new trial. Affirmed.
Court: Minnesota Supreme Court, Judge: Anderson, Filed On: April 24, 2024, Case #: A23-0851, Categories: Dna, Evidence, Murder
J. McKeig affirms the Workers' Compensation Court of Appeals' affirmance of a compensation judge's finding that an employee had compensable post-traumatic stress disorder. The compensation judge's conclusion was based on the employee's credibility and the persuasiveness of an expert diagnosis, so the finding was not manifestly contrary to the evidence.
Court: Minnesota Supreme Court, Judge: McKeig, Filed On: April 17, 2024, Case #: A23-1207, Categories: Employment, Evidence, Workers' Compensation
J. Thissen reverses the Court of Appeals, finding that a state trooper's statements that "refusal to take a test [for blood alcohol content] is a crime" complied with the advisory requirements of a Minnesota statute regarding chemical tests requiring a search warrant. The only reasonable reading of the statute is that it requires that a driver be advised, generally, that test refusal is a crime, not that they be advised in detail of all of the elements of the offense of test refusal. Reversed.
Court: Minnesota Supreme Court, Judge: Thissen, Filed On: April 10, 2024, Case #: A22-1238, Categories: Search, Dui, Civil Rights
J. Moore affirms the defendant's conviction for second-degree assault. The defendant's statements that he planned to beat the victim were sufficient direct evidence to support the contention that he intended to use a wooden board as a weapon, and the likelihood that the board's use would cause death or great bodily harm was enough to support a jury's conclusion that the board was a dangerous weapon. Affirmed.
Court: Minnesota Supreme Court, Judge: Moore, Filed On: April 3, 2024, Case #: A22-0172, Categories: Assault, Weapons
J. Anderson affirms the court of appeals' reversal of the district court's denial of the landlord's parent company's other subsidiaries' motion to dismiss the tenant's claims against them. The tenant forfeited her opportunity to argue that the subsidiaries were sufficiently linked to the landlord to give her standing to bring claims against them. Affirmed.
Court: Minnesota Supreme Court, Judge: Anderson, Filed On: April 3, 2024, Case #: A22-0928, Categories: Civil Procedure, Jurisdiction
J. Chutich suspends attorney Ronald Frauenshuh Jr. from the practice of law for a minimum of 30 days as reciprocal discipline following discipline in South Dakota for failing to comply with court orders, leading to a mistrial, and continuing to engage in such misconduct during a re-trial.
Court: Minnesota Supreme Court, Judge: Chutich, Filed On: March 28, 2024, Case #: A23-1586, Categories: Attorney Discipline
J. Anderson affirms the tax court's determination that the affordable-housing charity used its property in furtherance of its charitable purpose by leasing that property to low-income people for personal residence, and that the leases therefore did not alter the property's tax-exempt status. Affirmed.
Court: Minnesota Supreme Court, Judge: Anderson, Filed On: March 27, 2024, Case #: A23-0737, Categories: Tax, Housing
J. McKeig affirms the defendant's second-degree assault conviction, appealed on the grounds that the state did not provide sufficient evidence that the broom handle he broke over his wife's head was a "dangerous weapon" and that he could not be convicted for both second-degree assault and domestic assault. Domestic assault is not a "lesser degree" of second-degree assault, so the relevant Minnesota statute does not prohibit convictions for both offenses, and the state need only prove that death or great bodily harm is a "probable or reasonably expected" outcome of a defendant's use of an object to make it a dangerous weapon. Affirmed.
Court: Minnesota Supreme Court, Judge: McKeig, Filed On: March 20, 2024, Case #: A22-0960, Categories: Assault, Weapons
J. Procaccini affirms the postconviction court's denial of the defendant's petition for postconviction relief for his third-degree criminal sexual conduct conviction. Guilty verdicts for both that conviction and a charge of attempted third-degree sexual assault are legally consistent, since the defendant was not convicted of, or punished for, the attempted offense. The defendant's counsel was therefore not ineffective for failing to raise that issue. Additionally, the district court did not abuse its discretion when it denied his request for an evidentiary hearing regarding expert testimony challenging the testimony used to convict him, since that purported newly discovered evidence would not probably lead to a more favorable result for the defendant. Affirmed.
Court: Minnesota Supreme Court, Judge: Procaccini, Filed On: March 20, 2024, Case #: A22-1063, Categories: Evidence, Sex Offender, Double Jeopardy
J. Procaccini affirms the district court's findings that police had probable cause to arrest the defendant, later convicted of first-degree murder, and that police did not materially misrepresent information in an application for a warrant to search the defendant's residence, along with its denial of the defendant's motion to admit reverse-Spreigl evidence and his request to cross-examine a lead investigator as to whether police had investigated unnamed suspects from a prior shooting. Security footage depicting the defendant having an "animated exchange" with the victim at a bar, monitoring the victim inside the bar, going outside to an idling vehicle and reaching inside, climbing into a car across the street and turning off the headlights, the victim walking toward the car and the victim's subsequent collapse in the street near the car was sufficient to establish probable cause to arrest the defendant for the victim's murder. The district court also did not clearly err in finding that police's description of this interaction as a "confrontation" in their search warrant application was not reckless misrepresentation. The district court also did not abuse its discretion in finding that prior crimes of another person in the car and at the scene were not relevant to this case and in excluding that evidence, since there are few similarities between those crimes and this one, or in denying the request to question the lead investigator, since it properly cited concerns about the risk of creating unfair prejudice or impugning the victim's character and about a lack of relevance. Affirmed.
Court: Minnesota Supreme Court, Judge: Procaccini, Filed On: March 20, 2024, Case #: A23-0154, Categories: Confrontation, Evidence, Murder
Per curiam, the Minnesota Supreme Court reverses the defendant's first-degree premeditated murder, attempted first-degree premeditated murder, first-degree intentional murder and kidnapping convictions, each premised on aiding-and-abetting theories of liability. While a search warrant application for a search of the defendant's cell phone was sufficiently supported by probable cause, the district court erred in instructing the jury that the defendant "or another (or others)" satisfied each element of each offense. These "hybrid instructions" misstated the law in a way that was not harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. Reversed.
Court: Minnesota Supreme Court, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: March 20, 2024, Case #: A22-1281, Categories: Murder, Accomplice Liability, Jury Instructions
J. McKeig affirms the defendant's conviction for knowingly permitting a minor to ingest methamphetamine. The state provided sufficient evidence, including the defendant's relationship with the child's host family and regular contact with the child and her friend, both 14, to make the hypothesis that the defendant knew the children were under 18 the only rational one. Affirmed.
Court: Minnesota Supreme Court, Judge: McKeig, Filed On: March 13, 2024, Case #: A22-0200, Categories: Drug Offender, Evidence, Child Victims
J. Moore affirms the district court's grant of a new trial to the father convicted of two counts of second-degree felony murder for the death of his son. The State mistakenly presented false expert testimony about a medical fact that its own expert later stated could not be true, namely that macular schisis is exclusively caused by abusive head trauma, and the district court properly applied a test for false or recanted testimony. The defendant also met his burden under that test by demonstrating that the testimony was false, that the jury might have reached a different conclusion without it and that he was surprised by the false testimony. Affirmed.
Court: Minnesota Supreme Court, Judge: Moore, Filed On: March 13, 2024, Case #: A22-0749, Categories: Murder, Experts, Child Victims
J. Hudson adopts in part the Minnesota Board of Law Examiners' recommendations regarding the Minnesota bar examination, and directs an Implementation Committee to "further explore a supervised practice-based pathway for assessment."
Court: Minnesota Supreme Court, Judge: Hudson, Filed On: March 13, 2024, Case #: ADM10-8008, Categories: Administrative Law
J. Chutich suspends attorney Eduardo Drake from the practice of law for a minimum of 90 days for failing to deposit an advance fee into trust, failing to diligently handle a client's matter, failing to communicate with a client, failing to maintain books and records documenting a payment from a client, failing to cooperate with a disciplinary investigation and failing to comply with the terms of a private probation.
Court: Minnesota Supreme Court, Judge: Chutich, Filed On: March 13, 2024, Case #: A23-0301, Categories: Attorney Discipline
J. Chutich affirms the defendant's upward durational sentencing departure for his conviction of third-degree criminal sexual conduct against a physically helpless person. The offense was committed in the victim's bedroom and therefore in her zone of privacy, and that aggravating factor is a proper basis for an upward durational departure. Affirmed.
Court: Minnesota Supreme Court, Judge: Chutich, Filed On: March 6, 2024, Case #: A22-0105, Categories: Sentencing, Sex Offender