Justia Minnesota Supreme Court Opinion Summaries

The Supreme Court dismissed this appeal from the opinion of the court of appeals affirming the decision of the district court to grant a harassment restraining order (HRO) against Appellant, holding that Appellant's challenge to the HRO did not present a justiciable controversy because it was moot.The district court concluded that Appellant had engaged in repeated incidents of harassing conduct against Respondent and issued a six-month HRO. While Appellant's appeal was pending, the HRO expired. The court of appeals affirmed, and Appellant filed a petition for further review. The Supreme Court dismissed the appeal without reaching the merits, holding that Appellant's challenge to the HRO did not present a justiciable controversy because it was moot. View "Winkowski v. Winkowski" on Justia Law

The Supreme Court reversed the decision of the court of appeals reversing the judgment of the district court that Insured was not entitled to preaward interest from Insurer on an appraisal award based on Minn. Stat. 549.09, holding that the policy language limited interest on a loss to amounts accruing after an appraisal award is issued.After a fire damaged his home, Insured disagreed with Insurer's valuation and demanded an appraisal. The claim was submitted to appraisal, but Insurer did not pay Insured any additional amounts. Insured then demanded preaward interest on the appraisal award, arguing that interest accrued from the date of written notice of his fire claim and until the appraisal award was issued. When Insurer refused to pay, Insured brought this action. The district court concluded that Insured was not entitled to preaward interest. The court of appeals reversed, concluding that the policy language must "explicitly preclude" reward interest to avoid the obligation to pay preaward interest under section 549.09. The Supreme Court reversed, holding that a fire insurance policy provision stating that "no interest accrues on the loss until after the loss becomes payable" precludes preaward interest under section 549.09. View "Wesser v. State Farm Fire & Casualty Co." on Justia Law

The Supreme Court affirmed the opinion of the court of appeals reversing the judgment of the district court refusing to send the underlying rent dispute to arbitration and resolving the claim itself, holding that the dispute should be sent to arbitration.Landlord entered into a lease with Tenant providing that if Tenant defaulted Landlord shall submit such dispute to binding arbitration. When a dispute arose over water damage and withheld rent, litigation and arbitration resulted, with an arbitrator awarding judgment for Tenant. Thereafter, the trustee for several entities that held mortgages on the building brought a foreclosure action against Owner and appointed Receiver. When Tenant continued to refuse to pay rent, Receiver brought suit, and Tenant sought to send the dispute to arbitration. At issue was whether Receiver was bound by the lease's arbitration clause. The district court refused to send the dispute to arbitration and ruled that Tenant must make rent payments to Receiver. The court of appeals reversed. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding that the court of appeals properly concluded that Receiver was subject to the arbitration agreement in the lease. View "Wilmington Trust, Nat'l Ass'n v. 700 Hennepin Holdings, LLC" on Justia Law

The Supreme Court affirmed the decision of the court of appeals concluding that the interpretation of a restrictive covenant was a question of fact for a jury, holding that because the evidence did not conclusively establish one covenanting party's intent in drafting the document at issue, the interpretation of the covenant was a question of fact for a jury.Specifically, the Supreme Court held (1) the interpretation of an ambiguous restrictive land use covenant is a question for a jury unless extrinsic evidence proffered by the parties is conclusive as to the covenanting parties' intent; (2) a jury should strictly construe an ambiguity in a restrictive covenant against the land use restriction only if the jury is unable to resolve by a preponderance of the evidence the ambiguity from the extrinsic evidence; and (3) the court of appeals did not err in concluding that the extrinsic evidence in this case did not conclusively resolve the ambiguity in the restrictive covenant. View "Windcliff Ass'n v. Breyfogle" on Justia Law

The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the district court summarily denying Appellant's second petition for postconviction relief as time-barred because Appellant's postconviction claim failed to satisfy the newly discovered evidence or the interests of justice exceptions, holding that the district court did not abuse its discretion.Defendant was convicted of premeditated first-degree murder following a jury trial. Defendant later brought this postconviction petition asserting that the State committed a Brady violation when it failed to disclose this exculpatory information before his trial. The district court summary denied the petition as time-barred. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding that because Defendant's claims did not satisfy the newly discovered evidence or the interests of justice exceptions the district court properly denied Defendant's second postconviction petition as untimely. View "Blanche v. State" on Justia Law

The Supreme Court affirmed Defendant's convictions of first-degree premeditated murder and attempted second-degree murder, holding that any error in the underlying proceedings was harmless.In its written findings of fact, the trial court made a finding related to Defendant's defense that was unsupported by the record concerning business closures at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and used this finding as part of its assessment of Defendant's credibility. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding (1) the district court's pandemic-related finding did not require a new trial under any of the impartiality tests; and (2) the district court's failure to consider the lesser-included offense of second-degree unintentional felony murder in its deliberations was harmless. View "State v. Lopez" on Justia Law

The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the workers' compensation court of appeals (WCCA) affirming the findings and conclusions of the compensation judge determining that Employee was entitled to workers' compensation benefits because of her Gillette injury, holding that the WCCA's affirmance of the compensation judge's findings was not manifestly contrary to the evidence.Employee filed a claim petition alleging that she sustained a Gillette injury and sought workers' compensation benefits. The compensation judge ordered Employer to pay Employee benefits. The WCCA affirmed. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding that the WCCA's findings, including the date Employee's injury occurred, when Employee was required to notify Employer of her injury, and the calculation of Employe's post-injury earning capacity, were not manifestly contrary to the evidence. View "Schmidt v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc." on Justia Law

The Supreme Court affirmed the judgments of the tax court declining to include a "concession fee" as rental income attributable to the properties in this case under the income-capitalization approach to property valuation, holding that the tax court did not err.At issue was Hennepin County's valuation of the respective properties owned by Enterprise Leasing Company of Minnesota and Avis Budget Car Rental, LLC at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. The tax court disagreed with Hennepin County's approach, decided not to include the concession fee as rental income, and estimated a market value in each case that was lower than the value that the County sought at trial. The Supreme Court affirmed in both cases, holding that the tax court did not clearly err in excluding the concession fee from rental income. View "Enterprise Leasing Co. of Minn. v. County of Hennepin" on Justia Law

In this appeal arising out of the application of a provision of the Minnesota Workers' Compensation Act known as the "assault exception" the Supreme Court held that the assault exception applied and that Relator Deangelo Profit was not entitled to recover workers' compensation benefits under the circumstances of this case.Profit suffered serious injuries when he was attacked at his job site by a mentally ill acquaintance while he was performing his work injuries. Profit sought workers' compensation benefits under Minn. Stat. 176.021, subd. 1, which are to awarded in cases "of personal injury or death of an employee arising out of and in the course of employment." The Workers' Compensation Court of Appeals concluded that Profit was not entitled to recover benefits under the assault exception. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding that the assault exception did not apply where the assailant "intended to injure [Profit] because of personal reasons" and his acts were "not directed against the employee as an employee, or because of the employment." View "Profit v. HRT Holdings" on Justia Law

The Supreme Court reversed the decision of the court of appeals affirming the order of the district court granting summary judgment ruling that the public's interest in an undeveloped road dedicated to public use by plat over 100 years ago had been extinguished by operation of the Marketable Title Act (MTA), Minn. Stat. 541.023, holding that the district court erred.On appeal, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and Itasca County argued that the lower courts erred in ruling that the MTA does not apply to roads dedicated to public use by plat. The Supreme Court agreed and reversed, holding that the MTA does not operate to extinguish public interests properly dedicated by plat. View "In re Application of Moratzka" on Justia Law