Background: Cassidy Joelle Larsgaard appealed a district court order designating her a vexatious litigant and requiring her to obtain leave of court before filing new litigation or additional documents in existing litigation. She also challenged the accompanying order requiring her to pay Michael Edwin Larsgaard $7,500 in attorney’s fees and costs.
Held: The North Dakota Supreme Court affirmed, holding that the district court complied with Rule 58’s procedural requirements. The rule permits a presiding judge to act on the court’s own motion, so a separate motion or notice of motion from a party was unnecessary. Cassidy received the required notice and an opportunity to respond in writing, and Rule 58 gives the…
Background: NextEra Energy Global Holdings B.V. and NextEra Energy Spain Holdings B.V., described by the court as the Dutch Investors, commenced ICSID arbitration against Spain under the Energy Charter Treaty over investments in Spain. The tribunal rejected Spain’s objection that the treaty’s arbitration mechanism did not apply to disputes between an investor from one European Union…
Held: The Court of Appeal dismissed Spain’s appeal. It held that Spain’s accession to the ICSID Convention, particularly its undertaking under Article 54 to recognize and enforce ICSID awards, constituted a prior written submission to the jurisdiction of Singapore’s courts for proceedings to register or enforce such awards. The submission exception in section 4 of the State Immunity Act therefore applied.…
Background: The Bank of New York Mellon brought this action in 2014 to foreclose a mortgage on Achyut M. Tope’s New Haven property. After a judgment of foreclosure by sale and extensive subsequent litigation, the Connecticut Supreme Court held that Tope’s challenge to the bank’s standing was not an impermissible collateral attack. It remanded for an…
Held: The Appellate Court held that the trial court implicitly ruled on Tope’s sanctions motion. At the evidentiary hearing, the court granted the alternative relief Tope requested by authorizing posthearing depositions and allowing discovery arguments in the parties’ briefs. By later rejecting Tope’s discovery grievances and denying his motion to open, the court also implicitly denied any remaining request for sanctions.
Background: Joseph Beard worked for venture-capital firm Perot Jain, L.P. under an employment agreement that made him eligible for a 3% “promote” based on his involvement in the firm’s business. When he left in 2020, Beard and Perot Jain executed a separation agreement addressing a 3% promote for specified portfolio companies, followed by a release stating…
Held: The Fifteenth Court of Appeals denied Beard’s mandamus petition. It held that “arising out of a qualified transaction” under Texas Government Code section 25A.004(d)(1) requires a broad but-for causal connection, rather than direct or proximate causation.
Background: Nicholas Caspers sought postconviction relief concerning sentences imposed after probation-revocation proceedings in 2022 and 2023. His illegal-sentence theory depended on the assertion that proceedings on the State’s second petition to revoke probation had resulted in a revocation in 2020.
Held: The North Dakota Supreme Court held that the district court properly dismissed the illegal-sentence claim because the premise underlying it had already been rejected in Caspers’s prior appeal. The issue therefore had been fully and finally determined in a previous proceeding under N.D.C.C. § 29-32.1-12(1).
Background: Wendy C. Villalobos was struck by a vehicle while pushing a shopping cart through a crosswalk in front of a Target store in New Britain. The driver made a wide turn from a parking aisle onto the roadway and struck Villalobos in the northbound lane. Villalobos alleged that Target negligently designed and maintained the roadway,…
Held: The Connecticut Appellate Court reversed and ordered a new trial. Because Target controlled the premises and had hired independent contractors to design, construct, and maintain the roadway, the requested nondelegable-duty instruction was legally correct and supported by the evidence. Target could delegate performance of its premises-safety obligations, but not its ultimate legal responsibility for a contractor’s negligence.
Background: Edson Carrizales Cruz sued the City of Houston for negligence after a City employee allegedly ran a red light in a City-owned vehicle and struck Cruz's vehicle, causing serious injuries. Cruz alleged that the employee was acting within the scope of employment.
Held: The First Court of Appeals affirmed. Allegations that a governmental employee negligently operated a governmental vehicle and caused the collision are sufficient at the Rule 91a stage to invoke the TTCA's motor-vehicle waiver.
Background: Glenn Safford Dewitz appealed from a Morton County District Court judgment entered after a bench trial in his divorce proceedings against Sheree Lee Dewitz. The district court had ordered Glenn to provide discovery responses and later held him in contempt for failing to comply.
Held: The North Dakota Supreme Court held that Glenn failed to preserve his challenge to the exclusion of his valuation evidence. When evidence is excluded as a discovery sanction, the party seeking admission must demonstrate prejudice by making the substance of the excluded evidence known to the trial court through an offer of proof. Glenn made no such offer after the…
Background: Frog Bridge Development Company leased an apartment in Willimantic to Joseph Osborne for $900 monthly. After the written lease expired, Osborne continued as a month-to-month tenant. In December 2023, the landlord offered a one-year renewal at $1,400 per month and stated that, if Osborne neither renewed nor left, a month-to-month tenancy would continue at $1,550…
Held: The Appellate Court upheld the judgment on the refusal-to-accept-a-rent-increase count. Section 47a-23c(c)(1)'s requirement that a protected tenant's increase be “fair and equitable” is not ambiguous: the statute expressly directs courts to the criteria in § 7-148c. The trial court properly treated the ultimate fair-and-equitable determination as discretionary and did not clearly err in crediting evidence concerning comparable rents, inflation, and…
Background: John E. Lunday brought an action concerning title to certain real property. The Rolette County District Court entered an amended judgment quieting title after finding that a 2022 deed had not been delivered.
Held: The North Dakota Supreme Court summarily affirmed. It held that the district court did not misapply the law and that its factual findings were not clearly erroneous. Although Brent asserted that one paragraph of the district court's 44-page order referred to the wrong deed, the Supreme Court concluded that the findings as a whole showed no misunderstanding of the evidence…
Background: In this divorce case, the Burleigh County district court divided the marital estate unequally, awarding approximately 35% to Wayne Sailer, Jr. and 65% to Christi Sailer. The court found that Wayne had greater current earning capacity and received assets that were more readily liquidated than the assets awarded to Christi.
Held: The North Dakota Supreme Court affirmed. It held that the district court comprehensively considered the Ruff-Fischer factors and that the record supported its findings. Although the distribution was unequal, the court concluded it was equitable in light of the parties’ earning capacities and the differing liquidity of the assets they received.
Background: Russell Wayne Everett, Jr. appealed from a judgment entered after the district court summarily dismissed his third application for postconviction relief. The application alleged ineffective assistance of trial counsel.
Held: The North Dakota Supreme Court affirmed the dismissal. It explained that a party may not collaterally attack in a later proceeding a final decision from which no appeal was taken.