North Dakota Supreme Court

The court affirmed Thompson’s conviction, holding that testimony about text messages was relevant, sufficiently authenticated, and admissible as her own statements, and that the photograph of one message was properly admitted for impeachment.

The court affirmed the divorce judgment, concluding the district court did not clearly err in awarding Kathy Wolt custody, restricting Steve Wolt's visitation, or valuing and equitably dividing the marital estate.

The North Dakota Supreme Court affirmed the denial of Timothy Lamb’s application for a writ of mandamus and motion to reconsider. It held that Lamb lacked a clear legal right to records concerning the administration and grading of the bar examination because Admission to Practice Rule 13 validly made those records…

The court affirmed a judgment awarding Fargo Marc a net $38,700.12 after finding that Fargo Marc committed fraud concerning Old Navy's rent but did not breach the purchase agreement, while WFND and Old Navy bore comparative fault.

The court reversed dismissal of Riverwood's action arising from a sewer pipeline crossing its property. It held that the claims not available in the earlier summary eviction proceeding were not barred by law of the case, res judicata, or collateral estoppel, and that dismissal with prejudice for failure to join…

The court affirmed Woinarowicz's conviction, holding that the Confrontation Clause does not apply to pretrial suppression hearings and that the district court could admit the officer's testimony about Novak's consent without applying the ordinary hearsay rules.

The North Dakota Supreme Court reversed James Blue’s conviction, holding that the videotaped interview of the four‑year‑old child was a testimonial statement whose admission violated the Sixth Amendment Confrontation Clause, that the trial court erred in finding the child unavailable and in relying on reliability…

The court affirmed G.R.H.'s involuntary commitment as a sexually dangerous individual, holding that the statutory definition requires a nexus between the qualifying disorder and future dangerousness, which encompasses serious difficulty controlling behavior, and that the record satisfied this requirement by clear and…

The North Dakota Supreme Court affirmed the district court's amended divorce judgment modifying visitation and child support, holding the visitation determination was not clearly erroneous and the child support modification and its March 1, 2004 effective date were proper.

The North Dakota Supreme Court reversed the denial of post-conviction relief and remanded for a new trial because trial counsel provided ineffective assistance by failing to make an offer of proof after defense witnesses were excluded for violating a sequestration order.

The North Dakota Supreme Court affirmed the district court’s denial of Garcia’s post‑conviction relief applications, holding that his trial counsel’s performance during voir dire, witness sequestration, response to alleged juror misconduct, and sentencing investigation did not fall below the objective standard of…

The North Dakota Supreme Court affirmed Timothy Klose's murder conviction and the denial of his motion for mistrial and two motions for new trial. The court held the mistrial motion was untimely because it was first made at sentencing after the jury had been discharged; substantial evidence supported the jury's…

The court affirmed the judgment awarding Olander compensation for unforeseen extra work performed to complete a sewer project and rejecting Bismarck's contract, indemnity, negligence, and new-trial challenges.

The North Dakota Supreme Court affirmed the jury’s verdict that the YMCA was not negligent and upheld the comparative fault analysis, but reversed the dismissal of the Rodenburgs’ claim against Patrick Parker, holding that personal jurisdiction over Parker was proper.

The court affirmed the defendants’ convictions for murder, conspiracy, and theft. It held that the defendants failed to show the pretrial publicity made an impartial jury impossible, failed to preserve their objections to the voluntary-intoxication instructions and could not establish obvious error, and did not show…

The North Dakota Supreme Court affirmed the district court's denial of Gregg's motion to suppress, holding that the traffic stop, the search incident to arrest, the automobile exception search, and the impound inventory were all lawful and that the evidence was not subject to the fruit‑of‑the‑poisonous‑tree doctrine.

The court affirmed the denial of Diane’s venue motion and upheld the change of custody to Mark because the record showed persistent visitation interference, parental alienation, exhaustion of other remedies, and a significant change of circumstances supporting the children’s best interests.

The North Dakota Supreme Court affirmed Kyle Neumiller’s conviction for driving while his license was under suspension, holding that the evidence was sufficient to establish that he received notice of the suspension.

The court affirmed the denial of Diane’s motion to change venue and upheld the change of custody to Mark because the record showed a significant change in circumstances caused by Diane’s persistent interference with visitation and alienation of the children.

The court held that retroactively applying North Dakota's sex-offender registration requirement to Burr did not violate either ex post facto clause because the requirement was regulatory rather than punitive and imposed only a collateral consequence of his prior conviction.

The court held that the 1993 amendment to North Dakota's grandparent-visitation statute violated parents' fundamental liberty interest in controlling their children's associations because it presumed visitation was in the child's best interests and required visitation unless the parent disproved that presumption.

The North Dakota Supreme Court reversed the trial court’s judgment and remanded for further proceedings, finding the lower court erred in refusing spousal support, in its property division, and in valuing a retirement account, while affirming the visitation order and directing the trial court to consider attorney‑fee…

The court held that police officers unlawfully entered DeCoteau’s home without consent, exigent circumstances, or a valid community-caretaking justification. Because the entry violated the Fourth Amendment, the evidence discovered inside should have been suppressed, and the conviction was reversed with a remand…

The North Dakota Supreme Court affirmed summary judgment dismissing investors' claims under the North Dakota Securities Act as barred by the one-year limitations period of N.D.C.C. § 10-04-17(1).

The court held that child-support determinations receive a mixed standard of review and that the district court erred by failing to explain how it calculated the obligor's imputed income under the mandatory guidelines.

The court affirmed summary judgments dismissing claims against passengers who had arranged a ride with an intoxicated driver and claims alleging a conspiracy to commit perjury. It held that, absent a special relationship, passenger status, a request for transportation, generalized advice to the driver, or the…

The court affirmed most of the divorce judgment but reversed portions concerning the valuation of the marital business, the resulting property distribution, and consideration of trial-level attorney fees.

The court reversed Olander's manslaughter conviction because the jury was not instructed that the State had to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he did not act in self-defense.

The court affirmed Steinbach’s convictions for murder, physical obstruction of a government function, and tampering with physical evidence, as well as the denial of his motion for a new trial.

The North Dakota Supreme Court affirmed the trial court's denial of the Kitchens' motion to suppress, holding that the enclosed entryway to their home did not afford a reasonable expectation of privacy under the Fourth Amendment.

The North Dakota Supreme Court affirmed the district court, holding that N.D.C.C. § 29-15-21 does not apply to post‑conviction proceedings under the Uniform Post‑Conviction Procedure Act and that Falcon's claim of ineffective assistance of counsel fails because the hearsay evidence would have been admissible had…

The court held that a custodial parent seeking to relocate a child out of state must prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the move serves the child's best interests, applying a four-factor analysis focused on quality-of-life advantages, parental motives, and realistic substitute visitation.

The North Dakota Supreme Court addressed a dispute over reformation of a 75-year ground lease's maximum rental clause, which the parties agreed contained a mutual mistake that eliminated yearly CPI adjustments. The court held that the twenty-year statute of limitations in N.D.C.C.

The North Dakota Supreme Court affirmed the trial court's divorce decree and its denial of a new‑trial motion, holding that the trial court did not abuse its discretion, that marital property is properly valued at the trial date, that premarital and gifted property is includable in the marital estate, and that the…

The court affirmed the denial of suppression for Winkler's pre-arrest and post-arrest statements and for his Intoxilyzer result. It held that the officers' driveway entry and observation of the pickup in the open garage were not searches, but their entry into the garage was a warrantless search; the warrant…

The North Dakota Supreme Court reversed the district court’s property division, finding the trial court failed to explain the substantial disparity and relied solely on recent income without addressing alleged waste, and remanded for further explanation or adjustment.

The North Dakota Supreme Court affirmed the trial court’s denial of a motion to suppress, holding that the trooper had a reasonable and articulable suspicion of a traffic violation sufficient to justify an investigatory stop of Hawley’s vehicle.

The court held that the trial court clearly erred by excluding the husband's vested interest in a substantial credit trust from the marital-property distribution and by limiting the wife's spousal support to one year.

The court affirmed dismissal of the charges against Thompson and Bommersbach because competent evidence supported findings that their unlawful detention actually prejudiced their ability to present a defense.

The court held that the homeowners policy's sexual-molestation exclusion barred coverage for Jean Norgard despite the policy's severability clause because the exclusion specifically addressed molestation by anyone connected with the day-care operation.